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this actually appeared in 1983
I think that there is a cultural gap between me as an American, and the people who designed this book. To my mind, it falls in between two stools: I keep expecting it to either provide its information in greater depth, or show me more pretty pictures. As it is, it's sort of an unholy mixture of coffee-table book and textbook. On the one hand, it seems to be directed at a reader who will be excited to know that fungi were mentioned once in a 16th century Herbal (hoo boy!), and will be thrilled to see the grossly inaccurate wood-cut that the herbal provides to illustrate it. And on the other hand, it's directed at a reader who will be interested in a complete bibliographic listing, covering several pages of the text, (not an appendix, mind you; those are even more stunning) of major monographs of genera published in the 20th century.
But while I can't imagine who could read it through without great frustration (and it does seem to be intended for people to read through), it's a wonderful and carefully done reference work. I have used its bibliographies and short biographies of mycologists to great effect in this website.
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