This collection includes books, correspondence, journals, newsletters, pamphlets, ephemera and realia related to Cage's interest in the study of mushrooms.

John Cage, justifiably famous as a composer, was also very much interested in mycology. He was born in Los Angeles on the 5th of September, 1912. He attended Pomona College, but dropped out after two years and headed to Europe. In 1930, while still in Paris, Cage became interested in both modern music and modern painting. Soon he left and went to Mallorca, where he began painting and writing music himself. The following year he returned to California, settling in at Pacific Palisades. While writing music for the piano, he met Richard Buhlig, who was the first pianist to play the Opus II of Schoenberg. Though Buhlig was not a teacher of composition, he agreed to help Cage with writing music. From Buhlig he went to Henry Cowell [1933-34] and, at Cowell's suggestion, to Adolph Weiss in preparation for studies with Arnold Schoenberg. In order to work with Schoenberg, he gave up painting and concentrated on music.

9 archival boxes, 1 painting

Publication Rights Property rights reside with the University of California. Literary rights are retained by the creators of the records and their heirs. For permission to publish or to reproduce the material, please contact the Head of Special Collections and Archives.

Access Collection is open for research.