Frederick Edward Clements (1874–1945) was a plant ecologist who is best known for pioneering research on plant succession, although he held an early interest in the field of mycology. He studied at the University of Nebraska and was a part of the Botanical Seminar, taught by Charles E. Bessey. He received his doctorate in 1898 and subsequently became a professor. In 1907 he left to lead the botany department at the University of Minnesota, where he stayed for 10 years before leaving to join the Carnegie Institute of Washington, where he would perform research with his wife Edith Clements (1874–1971) until retirement in 1941.

Of his many publications The Genera of Fungi was one of his earliest, originally published in 1909. A revised second edition was produced in cooperation with Cornelius Lott Shear (1865–1956) and published in 1931. Dr. Shear was a fellow graduate of the University of Nebraska, who focused much of his research on plant pathology and mycological diseases. At the time of publication of the second edition, he was serving as the head of the Division of Mycology and Disease Survey of the United States Bureau of Plant Industry.