Charles McIlvaine (1840–1909) was a veteran of the American Civil War who retired to become an author and mycologist.

[1] In 1880, he moved to West Virginia and began his post-military career as a minor author and amateur mycologist.

Century Magazine, Harper's Magazine, and similar periodicals, as well as by the Detroit Free Press published a mix of sketches, poems and short stories, often written in an approximation of the rural West Virginia dialect.

[3] He consumed hundreds of species, including some (such Russula emetica and Hypholoma fasciculare) that are generally considered poisonous, earning him the nickname 'Old Ironguts'.

The journal of amateur mushrooming, McIlvainea, published by the North American Mycological Association, is named in his honor.