diff --git a/general-info/release-20b.txt b/general-info/release-20b.txt
index af48f63e2cbe7c76e549dcd5290c91fdb8f68c01..7c076bd9d7d57748674b37eb8373d97d03648efa 100644
--- a/general-info/release-20b.txt
+++ b/general-info/release-20b.txt
@@ -54,6 +54,8 @@ New in this release:
       Previously, it used the current value of *PRINT-READABLY*.
     - DEFCLASS signals an error if the class name already names a
       DECLARATION. 
+    - The :METHOD-CLASS argument to ENSURE-GENERIC-FUNCTION can be a
+      class object as well as a name.
 
   * Bugfixes:
     - On Unicode builds, printing of '|\|| and '|`| was incorrect
diff --git a/pcl/boot.lisp b/pcl/boot.lisp
index f63ca791cb903160a05778a029270f23c7c70198..7fea1003023c348c8250ce79fc89e04f8927a292 100644
--- a/pcl/boot.lisp
+++ b/pcl/boot.lisp
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@
 ;;; *************************************************************************
 
 (file-comment
- "$Header: /Volumes/share2/src/cmucl/cvs2git/cvsroot/src/pcl/boot.lisp,v 1.75 2010/03/19 15:19:03 rtoy Exp $")
+ "$Header: /Volumes/share2/src/cmucl/cvs2git/cvsroot/src/pcl/boot.lisp,v 1.76 2010/04/17 18:31:42 rtoy Exp $")
 
 (in-package :pcl)
 (intl:textdomain "cmucl")
@@ -1900,7 +1900,9 @@ work during bootstrapping.
      (let ((method-class (getf ,all-keys :method-class '.shes-not-there.)))
        (unless (eq method-class '.shes-not-there.)
 	 (setf (getf ,all-keys :method-class)
-	       (find-class method-class t ,env))))))
+	       (if (symbolp method-class)
+		   (find-class method-class t ,env)
+		   method-class))))))
 
 #+loadable-pcl
 (progn