Ladislav Hagara

Ladislav Hagara
Born	(1944-01-15) 15 January 1944 (age 81)[1] Nováky, Slovakia[1]
Occupation	Mycologist, writer
Language	Slovak
Genre	Field guides novels short stories
Subject	Mushrooms of Slovakia occupational drama social conditions
Notable work	Otto's Encyclopedia of Mushrooms

Ladislav Hagara (born January 15, 1944) is a Slovak mycologist,[2][3] writer and author of mycological publications. He held the position of the Chairman of the Slovak Mycological Society of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and described a new fungal species variety.

Biography

Hagara graduated in journalism at the Faculty of Arts of the Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia in 1968. However he was banned from pursuing his profession as a journalist on ideological grounds—based on articles he wrote protesting the 1968 Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia, he was registered as a "hostile person" by the ŠtB secret police. Instead he worked as an editor and a director of a publishing house.[4]

In 2003, he successfully defended his dissertation on the topic of The Hyphodontia Genus in Slovakia (Basidiomycota, Corticiaceae).[5]

His mushroom field guides have sold over half a million copies[1]^[better source needed] across more than 35 editions[6] (in addition to Slovak also in Czech, French, German, Dutch and Hungarian),[7] and include Otto's Encyclopedia of Mushrooms, a field guide to mushrooms growing in the territory of Slovakia and Czechia, containing 4,200 photographs and descriptions of 3,230 species.[1] The Slovak names of more than 1000 of these species were created by Hagara.[1] As a part of his mycological scientific research, he has collected and processed more than 15,000 herbarium specimen of mushrooms.[5]^[better source needed] In 1990 he described and published a new variety of Infundibulicybe gibba var. adstringens.[8] The standard author abbreviation Hagara is used to indicate this person as the author when citing a botanical name.[9] He has also published several photo books about mushrooms.[5]

He is a member of the Slovak Writers' Society. In 1998 he became the chairman of the Mushroom Research Society, he is a member (and between 2015 and 2018 the chairman[10][11][12][13][14][15]) of the Slovak Mycological Society of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, as well as a member of mycological societies in Czechia, Austria and Germany.[4]

Hagara has also written several social-justice-themed short stories, and novels set in Slovak research institutions.

Publications

Fiction

• Matej Hrebenda: Vlastný životopis = Matej Hrebenda: Biography (1976)
• Kroky času = The Steps of Time (1979)
• Arzén = Arsenic (1984)
• Slnovrat = Solstice (1987)
• Blíženci = Gemini (1990)
• Uzly = Knots (1990)

Mycological works

• Atlas húb = Field Guide of Mushrooms (1987)
• Huby dvojníky = Mushroom Doubles (1992)
• Veľký atlas húb = The Great Field Guide of Mushrooms (2005) by Hagara, Jiří Bajer, and Vladimír Antonín
• Huby – Atlas = Mushrooms – A Field Guide (2006)
• Ottova encyklopédia húb = Otto's Encyclopedia of Mushrooms (2014)
• Huby – Atlas jedlých húb s osvedčenými receptami = Mushrooms – A Field Guide of Edible Mushrooms with Proven Recipes (2018) by Hagara, Oldřich Jindřich, and Aleš Vít

Awards

• 1984: Slovak Literary Fund Award for the novel Arzén = Arsenic[16]^[better source needed]
• 1985: Golden Medal of the Slovak Women's Federation for the novel Arzén = Arsenic[16]^[better source needed]

References

1. Janitor, Anton (December 2019). "PhDr. Ladislav Hagara, PhD. sedemdesiatpäťročný" [75 years of Dr. Ladislav Hagara] (PDF). Spravodajca Slovenskej mykologickej spoločnosti = Newsletter of the Slovak Mycological Society (in Slovak). 2019 (51). Slovak Mycological Society of the Slovak Academy of Sciences: 19–27. ISSN 1335-7689. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
2. "Významný mykológ Ladislav Hagara mapoval výskyt húb na hornej Nitre". SME (in Slovak). Retrieved 29 December 2023.
3. "Huby ako ich nepoznáme". Slovak Academy of Sciences (in Slovak). Retrieved 29 December 2023.
4. "Ladislav Hagara: Životopis autora = Ladislav Hagara: Biography of the author". Slovenské literárne centrum [sk] (in Slovak). Retrieved 28 December 2023.
5. www.books.sk. "Ladislav Hagara: životopis = Ladislav Hagar: Curriculum vitae". Databáze knih (in Slovak). Retrieved 28 December 2023.
6. "Zbieranie húb". Rádio Regina of Slovenský rozhlas (Slovak Radio) (Interview) (in Slovak). Retrieved 29 December 2023.
7. "MST Library". Mycological Society of Toronto. Retrieved 29 December 2023.
8. "Clitocybe gibba var. adstringens Hagara". Index Fungorum. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
9. "Hagara, Ladislav (1944–)". International Plant Names Index. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
10. "Ladislav Hagara: Huby nielen ako hobby". Veda na dosah CVTISR (Centrum vedecko-technických informácií Slovenskej republiky [sk]) (Interview) (in Slovak). 23 June 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2023.
11. "Mykológ Ladislav Hagara rozšíril najväčšiu encyklopédiu húb na svete". SME (in Slovak). Retrieved 29 December 2023.
12. "Vlaňajším najvzácnejším nálezom mykológov je huba ostňovec konzolovitý". News Agency of the Slovak Republic (in Slovak). Retrieved 29 December 2023.
13. "Vedecká kaviareň: huby v prírode a v našom živote". Ministry of Education, Science and Sport of the Slovak Republic (in Slovak). Retrieved 29 December 2023.
14. "Veda v centre: Huby v prírode a v našom živote". Európska noc výskumníkov na Slovensku [sk] (in Slovak). Retrieved 29 December 2023.
15. "Výpis z registra – aktuálny". Register mimovládnych neziskových organizácií (in Slovak). Retrieved 29 December 2023.
16. "Ladislav Hagara – ocenenia". Slovenské literárne centrum [sk] (in Slovak). Retrieved 28 December 2023.