Ultimately, I decided it was best to send an email to the publisher in order to clear things up. In this email, I expressed my concern for not being contacted— and also requested that, had my photos been used improperly, I be compensated with a complimentary copy of the book. I got a fairly prompt response from Penguin Random House, and it turned out that the photos which they had utilized were, unbeknownst to me, listed under commercial license on Mushroom Observer. The representative who spoke with me, despite this misunderstanding, offered to not only send me a free copy of the book—but also change my attribution to my preferred name in future printings. My interaction could not have gone much more smoothly, but I was still left with a lingering discomfort on how things had been initially handled. I really hope that others who have been affected by this slight scandal had a similar outcome, and I do hope that the National Audubon Society goes about their business in a more respectful manner when acquiring photographs for their publications in the future.
Soon after this email exchange, I grew eager to receive my copy of National Audubon Society Mushrooms of North America, curious to see how much more improved the re-release of a book printed over 40 years ago would be. Only a few days went by before it arrived, and I of course almost immediately dove in to the material.
Here are my impressions:
There are a plethora of well-written, expert descriptions within this hefty book—and it is obvious that a lot of work went into that aspect of the publication. Despite this, the text is not the most approachable or inviting—particularly for those who are beginners or casual hobbyists. For those who are looking for edibility or toxicity information (which was a big part of the 1981 version), this is not included within this new book. It should also be mentioned that this isn’t really so much a functional field guide as it is a desk guide—unless you don’t mind carrying an unwieldy and awkward book along for your hikes.
In terms of the visual layout of this book, I think it is quite chaotic and careless.
1) While some pages are efficiently organized, many others have been halfheartedly cobbled together. (And not to be pedantic, but there is a spelling error on the front cover).
2) Photographs range in quality from exceptional to downright terrible.
3) An overabundance of photos for individual species is crammed onto one page, rendering the book into an amalgam of inappropriately cropped, uncomfortably resized, and even scarcely discernible, blurred images.
4) The repetitive use of the same restricted views of fungi is distracting. There are several species pages that have multiple photos of just one angle which lack important identifying features (e.g. gill shots, stem shots, staining or bruising, cross-sections, or even other growth stages).
Below, I have selected four pages with examples of this:
