author
D. M. (Donald Mundell) Crooks
1902–1992
Known for practical, easy-to-follow writing on poisonous plants, this mid-20th-century author helped turn specialized botanical knowledge into useful guidance for everyday readers. His best-known work explains how to identify poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac and how to avoid their effects.
1 Audiobook
Poison-ivy, poison-oak and poison sumac : Identification, precautions, eradication
by D. M. (Donald Mundell) Crooks, L. W. (Leonard Wheeler) Kephart
About the author
Donald Mundell Crooks (1902–1992), often published as D. M. Crooks, wrote practical nonfiction centered on poisonous plants. He is best known as the coauthor of Poison-ivy, Poison-oak and Poison Sumac: Identification, Precautions, Eradication, a U.S. Department of Agriculture publication that remained widely cataloged and reprinted.
His work stands out for its clear, public-facing purpose: helping readers recognize hazardous plants and deal with them safely. Rather than writing for a narrow academic audience, he contributed to the kind of straightforward reference book meant to be useful in daily life.
Reliable biographical details about his personal life and career are limited in the sources I could confirm, so this overview focuses on the work that is clearly attributed to him. Even so, that book gives a strong sense of his legacy: practical science writing that made botanical information more accessible.