William Alphonso Murrill: The Naturalist

For the casual naturalist, William Alphonso Murrill’s name is associated with a plethora of new species of fungi, his mysterious resignation from the New York Botanical Garden, his disappearance from New York, and rediscovery as a free spirit in Florida. Pivotal were his years in New York City, of course, but the process through which he arrived there, the people who acted to shape him, and his activities while there, leading to his life-changing trauma, have not been previously adequately summarized.

Three academic biologists were especially important to his development; George Francis Atkinson at Cornell, Lucien Marcus Underwood at Columbia, and Nathaniel Lord Britton at The New York Botanical Garden. Other individuals appeared omnipresent to the story: John Torrey, John Newberry, and Seth Low, the latter President of Columbia University and Mayor of New York City. The Torrey Botanical Club played an important role in Murrill’s integration in the city and the spread of his name to the wider biology community. Edna, the love of his life and his wife, remains a mysterious personage. The articulation of forces, individuals, and the times combined to produce an interesting man attempting to forge his own path as The Naturalist. 

Unlike most academics, Murrill left several autobiographical publications, often allegorical, which furnish material on his developing years. George Weber, who spent considerable time with Murrill in advanced life, penned a memorial from which valuable information has been gathered, and Jim Kimbrough (2003), Murrill’s successor as mycologist at the University of Florida, wrote a more informal sketch of Murrill’s last years. This book serves as a comprehensive biography of William Alphonso Murrill’s fascinating and mysterious life & career.