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{{Short description|British writer and social reformer (1851–1939)}}
{{Other people|Henry Salt}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2021}}
{{Use British English|date=November 2012}}
{{infobox person
| name               = Henry Stephens Salt
| image              = Henry Stephens Salt.jpg
| alt                = 
| caption            = 
| birth_name         = Henry Shakespear Stephens Salt
| birth_date         = {{birth date|1851|9|20|df=y}}
| birth_place        = [[Naini Tal]], [[British India]]
| death_date         = {{death date and age|1939|4|19|1851|9|20|df=y}}
| death_place        = [[Brighton]], England
| body_discovered    = 
| death_cause        = 
| resting_place      = 
| resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{coord|LAT|LONG|display=inline,title}} -->
| citizenship        = British
| known_for          = {{Plainlist|
* [[Animal rights]] advocacy
* Founding the [[Humanitarian League]]
* Influence on [[Gandhi]]
}}
| notable_works      = ''[[Animals' Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress]]'' (1892)
| education          = {{Plainlist|
* [[Eton College]]
* [[King's College, Cambridge]]
}}
| employer           = 
| occupation         = {{flatlist|
* Writer
* teacher
* social reformer
}}
| years_active       = 
| spouse             = {{Plainlist|
* {{marriage|Catherine (Kate) Leigh Joynes|1879|1919|end=died}}
* {{marriage|Catherine Mandeville|1927}}
}}
| partner            = 
| children           = 
| parents            = 
| relations          = {{Plainlist|
* [[James Leigh Joynes (clergyman)|Rev. James Leigh Joynes]] (father-in-law)
* [[James Leigh Joynes]] (brother-in-law)
}}
| callsign           = 
| awards             = 
| signature          = Henry_S._Salt_signature.svg
| signature_alt      = 
| website            = 
| footnotes          = 
}}

'''Henry Shakespear Stephens Salt''' ({{IPAc-en|s|ɔː|l|t|,_|s|ɒ|l|t}}; 20 September 1851 – 19 April 1939) was a British writer and social reformer. He campaigned for social reform in the fields of prisons, schools, economic institutions, and the treatment of animals. He was a noted ethical [[Vegetarianism|vegetarian]], [[anti-vivisectionist]], [[socialist]], and [[pacifist]], and was well known as a literary critic, biographer, classical scholar and [[natural history|naturalist]]. It was Salt who introduced [[Mohandas Gandhi]] to the works of [[Henry David Thoreau]], and influenced Gandhi's [[Mahatma Gandhi#Vegetarianism and committee work|study of vegetarianism]].<ref>"My faith in vegetarianism grew on me from day to day. Salt's book ''Plea for Vegetarianism'' whetted my appetite for dietetic studies. I went in for all books available on vegetarianism and read them". Mohandas Gandhi, ''[[An Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth]]'', Part I, chapter XV.</ref><ref>Ashe, Geoffrey. ''Gandhi, a Biography''. New York: Cooper Square Press, 2000</ref> Salt is considered, by some, to be the "father of animal rights",<ref>{{Cite web|title=Henry Salt - the father of animal rights|url=https://ivu.org/index.php/blogs/john-davis/106-henry-salt-the-father-of-animal-rights|access-date=2020-06-15|website=International Vegetarian Union|language=en-gb}}</ref> having been one of the first writers to argue explicitly in favour of [[animal rights]], rather than just improvements to [[animal welfare]], in his book ''[[Animals' Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress]]'' (1892).

== Biography ==

=== Early life and career ===
[[File:Henry S. Salt as an Eton Master.jpg|thumb|left|Salt as an Eton Master in 1871|231x231px]]

Henry Shakespear Stephens Salt was born in [[Naini Tal]], [[British India]], on 20 September 1851. He was the son of a British Army colonel. In 1852, while he was still an infant, Salt moved with his family to England. He was a [[King's Scholar]] at [[Eton College]] and later studied the classical [[tripos]] at [[King's College, Cambridge]], winning the [[Browne Medal]] in 1874 (for Greek [[epigram]]s), and graduating with a first-class degree in 1875.<ref name="bit">{{Cite ODNB|last=Oxbury|first=H. F.|date=2004-09-23|title=Salt, Henry Shakespear Stephens (1851–1939), classical scholar and publicist|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-37932|access-date=2020-07-03|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/37932|isbn=9780198614128}}</ref>

After Cambridge, Salt returned to Eton as an assistant schoolmaster to teach [[classics]]. Four years later, in 1879, he married the scholar Catherine (Kate) Leigh Joynes, the daughter of a fellow master at Eton.<ref name=bit/> He remained at Eton until 1884, when, inspired by classic ideals and disgusted by his fellow masters' meat-eating habits and reliance on servants, he and Kate moved to a small cottage at [[Tilford]], Surrey, where they grew their own vegetables and lived very simply, sustained by a small pension Salt had built up. Salt engrossed himself in writing and began work on the pioneering [[Humanitarian League]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Lewin|first=Michael|title=Henry Salt: Radical Campaigner & Activist|url=http://www.michaellewin.org/articles/simplicity/salt/|access-date=2020-07-13|website=Michael Lewin|date=22 May 2016 |language=en-US}}</ref>

=== Writing and influence ===
During his lifetime Salt wrote almost 40 books.<ref name="henrysalt.co.uk">{{Cite web |title=Biography |url=https://www.henrysalt.co.uk/life/biography/ |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20080305211751/http://www.henrysalt.co.uk/biography.htm |archivedate=5 March 2008 |website=Henry S. Salt Society}}</ref> His first, ''[[A Plea for Vegetarianism]]'' (1886) was published by the [[Vegetarian Society]], and in 1890, he produced an acclaimed biography of philosopher [[Henry David Thoreau]], two interests that later led to a friendship with [[Mahatma Gandhi]]. He also wrote, in ''On Cambrian and Cumbrian Hills'' (1922), about the need for [[nature conservation]] to protect the natural beauty of the British countryside from commercial vandalism.{{Citation needed|date=July 2024}}

His circle of friends included many notable figures from late-19th and early-20th century literary and political life, including writers [[Algernon Charles Swinburne]], [[John Galsworthy]], [[James Leigh Joynes]] (brother-in-law), [[Edward Carpenter]], [[Thomas Hardy]], [[Rudyard Kipling]], [[Havelock Ellis]], Count [[Leo Tolstoy]], [[William Morris]], [[Arnold Hills]], [[Ralph Hodgson]], [[Peter Kropotkin]], [[Ouida]], [[J. Howard Moore]], [[Ernest Bell (animal rights activist)|Ernest Bell]], [[George Bernard Shaw]] and [[Robert Cunninghame-Graham]], as well as Labour leader [[James Keir Hardie]] and [[Fabian Society]] co-founders [[Hubert Bland]] and [[Annie Besant]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Friends |url=https://www.henrysalt.co.uk/friends/ |access-date=2019-10-23 |website=Henry S. Salt Society |language=en-GB}}</ref><ref>[[Stephen Winsten|Winsten, Stephen]], ''Salt and His Circle'', 1951.</ref>

=== Activism ===

==== Vegetarianism ====
[[File:Gandhi LVS 1931.jpg|thumb|Salt and Gandhi at the [[Vegetarian Society]] in London, in 1931.]]
Salt's shift toward vegetarianism developed alongside his evolving social, political, and religious views, significantly influenced by [[Percy Bysshe Shelley|Shelley]], whom he regarded as a key mentor. Howard Williams' ''[[The Ethics of Diet]]'' praised by Salt for its humane diet advocacy, also played a role in shaping his views. Salt's vegetarianism was ultimately based on a deep moral conviction. He saw that meat, commonly regarded as food, was actually the flesh of animals slaughtered under harsh conditions. This understanding prompted him to scrutinise the ethical foundations of civilisation, which he viewed as concealing a fundamental barbarism and violence. He identified this underlying brutality in both humanity's treatment of other species and in political, economic, and social relationships, as demonstrated by war, imperialism, and the social injustices resulting from a competitive capitalist system.<ref name=":3">Duthie, Sky (2019) ''[https://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/27362/1/Sky%20Duthie_The%20Roots%20of%20Reform_PhD_2019.pdf The Roots of Reform: Vegetarianism and the British Left, c.1790-1900].'' PhD thesis, University of York. pp. 209–215.</ref>

Salt's commitment to vegetarianism deepened over time. In 1885, he was named a vice-president of the [[Vegetarian Society]]. The following year, he published ''A Plea for Vegetarianism and Other Essays'', an anthology emphasising his rational approach to vegetarian advocacy over emotional or polemical arguments. Salt argued that vegetarianism was not merely a dietary choice but a critical component of a broader social reform movement aimed at creating a more humane, just, and civil society, which he termed "humanitarianism".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Puskar-Pasewicz |first=Margaret |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SrD2EAAAQBAJ |title=Cultural Encyclopedia of Vegetarianism |date=2010-09-16 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing USA |isbn=979-8-216-06916-4 |language=en |chapter=Salt, Henry S. (1851–1939)}}</ref>

Notably, Salt's writings influenced Gandhi to transition from a religiously motivated vegetarianism to an explicitly ethical one. After encountering Salt's ''Plea for Vegetarianism'' in a London vegetarian restaurant, Gandhi read it thoroughly and was profoundly impressed. He chose to become a vegetarian by choice, dedicating himself to promoting the diet. Gandhi supported the British vegetarian movement and shared a platform with Salt at a 1931 London Vegetarian Society meeting, where he delivered a speech titled "The Moral Basis of Vegetarianism" explaining his dietary principles.<ref name=":3" />

==== Humanitarian League ====
{{Main|Humanitarian League}}
[[File:Henry S. Salt in his study.jpg|thumb|Salt in his study]]
In 1891, Salt co-founded the Humanitarian League, which aimed to promote humaneness and advocate for social and legal reforms. The League's philosophy was rooted in the belief that scientific advances and [[evolutionary biology]] had debunked long-held notions of differences between races, classes, and species, advocating for universal sympathy. The League, aligned with early organised [[humanism]], included prominent figures like [[Howard Williams (humanitarian)|Howard Williams]], [[Alice Drakoules]], [[Edward Maitland (writer)|Edward Maitland]], and [[Kenneth Romanes]]. It established an office in London in 1895, launched the journal ''Humanity'', and hosted the first National Humanitarian Conference. From 1897 to 1919, headquartered at [[Chancery Lane]], the League actively campaigned against [[corporal punishment]], [[Blood sport|blood sports]], and other societal injustices through press engagements and public debates. After Salt stepped down in 1919, the League dissolved, and in 1924, former members founded the [[League Against Cruel Sports]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |title=Humanist Heritage: The Humanitarian League (1891-1919) |url=https://heritage.humanists.uk/the-humanitarian-league/ |access-date=2024-07-18 |website=Humanist Heritage |language=en}}</ref>

==== Animal rights ====
In Salt's essay "A Good Taste in Diet", published in ''A Plea for Vegetarianism and Other Essays'' (1886), he states:<ref>{{Cite book |last=Salt |first=Henry Stephens |url=http://archive.org/details/pleaforvegetaria1886salt |title=A Plea for Vegetarianism, and Other Essays |date=1886 |publisher=[[Vegetarian Society]] |year=1886 |location=Manchester |pages=[https://archive.org/details/pleaforvegetaria1886salt/page/36/mode/1up 36] |language=en}}</ref><blockquote>Can any thoughtful man, in the face of such horrors, deliberately choose to be a flesh-eater? Must he not rather turn with relief to a vegetarian diet, with which alone can exist that widely sympathetic intellectual gentleness which recognises the rights, not of man only, but of all the animal creation.</blockquote>Keith Tester writes that, in 1892, Salt created an "[[Epistemology|epistemological]] break", by being the first writer to consider the issue of [[animal rights]] explicitly, as opposed to better [[animal welfare]].<ref name="TaylorTester">Tester, Keith (1991) cited in Taylor, Angus. ''Animals and Ethics''. Broadview Press, 2003, p. 61.</ref> In ''[[Animals' Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress]]'', Salt wrote that he wanted to "set the principle of animals' rights on a consistent and intelligible footing, [and] to show that this principle underlies the various efforts of humanitarian reformers ...":<ref name="Salt1">Salt, Henry S. ''[http://www.animal-rights-library.com/texts-c/salt01.htm Animals' Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress]'', Macmillan & Co., 1894, chapter 1. He cited Spencer's definition of rights: "Every man is free to do that which he wills, provided he infringes not the equal liberty of any other man ... Whoever admits that each man must have a certain restricted freedom, asserts that it is right he should have this restricted freedom.... And hence the several particular freedoms deducible may fitly be called, as they commonly are called, his rights."</ref>

<blockquote>Even the leading advocates of animal rights seem to have shrunk from basing their claim on the only argument which can ultimately be held to be a really sufficient one—the assertion that animals, as well as men, though, of course, to a far less extent than men, are possessed of a distinctive individuality, and, therefore, are in justice entitled to live their lives with a due measure of that 'restricted freedom' to which [[Herbert Spencer]] alludes.</blockquote>

He wrote that there is no point in claiming rights for animals if we subordinate their rights to human interests, and he argued against the presumption that a human life necessarily has more value than a nonhuman one:<ref name="Salt1" />

<blockquote>[The] notion of the life of an animal having 'no moral purpose,' belongs to a class of ideas which cannot possibly be accepted by the advanced humanitarian thought of the present day—it is a purely arbitrary assumption, at variance with our best instincts, at variance with our best science, and absolutely fatal (if the subject be clearly thought out) to any full realization of animals' rights. If we are ever going to do justice to the lower races, we must get rid of the antiquated notion of a 'great gulf' fixed between them and mankind, and must recognize the common bond of humanity that unites all living beings in one universal brotherhood.</blockquote>

=== Later life and death ===
[[File:Henry S. Salt with his wife Catherine in garden.jpg|thumb|Salt with his second wife Catherine]]
Salt's first wife died in 1919; following this, he closed down the Humanitarian League.<ref>{{Citation |last=Preece |first=Rod |title=The History of Animal Ethics in Western Culture |date=2011 |work=The Psychology of the Human-Animal Bond |pages=45–61 |editor-last=Blazina |editor-first=Christopher |url=http://link.springer.com/10.1007/978-1-4419-9761-6_3 |access-date=2024-07-21 |place=New York, NY |publisher=Springer New York |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-4419-9761-6_3 |isbn=978-1-4419-9760-9 |editor2-last=Boyraz |editor2-first=Güler |editor3-last=Shen-Miller |editor3-first=David|url-access=subscription }}</ref> Salt married Catherine Mandeville on 25 March 1927.<ref name="bit" /><ref>{{Cite web|title=Catherine Salt (née Mandeville)|url=https://www.henrysalt.co.uk/life/family/catherine-salt/|access-date=2020-07-03|website=Henry S. Salt Society|language=en-GB}}</ref> In 1935, he published ''The Creed of Kinship'', in which he critiqued established religions and laid out his own philosophy which he called "The Creed of Kinship"; it demanded the recognition of an evolutionary and biological affinity between humans and other animals.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Wild|first=Simon|title=Biography|url=https://www.henrysalt.co.uk/life/biography/|access-date=2020-07-13|website=Henry S. Salt Society|language=en-GB}}</ref>

In 1933, Salt suffered a stroke.<ref name=":1" /> He died six years later at [[Brighton General Hospital|Brighton Municipal Hospital]], on 19 April 1939, aged 87;<ref name="bit" /> his remains were cremated at [[Cemeteries and crematoria in Brighton and Hove#Woodvale Cemetery and Crematorium|Brighton Crematorium]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|title=Henry Stephens Salt Timeline|url=https://www.henrysalt.co.uk/life/timeline/|access-date=2020-06-28|website=Henry S. Salt Society|language=en-GB}}</ref>

== Legacy ==
The first biography of Salt, entitled ''Salt and His Circle'', was published by [[Stephen Winsten]], with a preface by George Bernard Shaw, in 1951.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Biographies on Salt|url=https://www.henrysalt.co.uk/bibliography/biographies/|access-date=2020-06-28|website=Henry S. Salt Society|language=en-GB}}</ref> A second biography, ''Humanitarian Reformer and Man of Letters'', was published by George Hendrick, in 1977.<ref name=":0" />

Salt's ''Animals' Rights'' was reissued in 1980; in the preface, philosopher [[Peter Singer]] described the work as the best book of the 18th- and 19th-centuries on animal rights and praised how Salt anticipated many of the issues in the contemporary animal rights debate.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Animal Rights|url=https://www.henrysalt.co.uk/life/reformer/animal-rights/|access-date=2020-06-28|website=Henry S. Salt Society|language=en-GB}}</ref>

The Henry S. Salt Society was formed with the intention to celebrate the life and works of Salt. Its website provides information on Salt's life and on his friends and fellow activists.<ref>{{Cite web|title=About|url=https://www.henrysalt.co.uk/archive/about/|access-date=2021-11-03|website=Henry S. Salt Society|language=en-GB}}</ref>

== Selected publications ==

*''[https://archive.org/details/pleaforvegetaria1886salt A Plea for Vegetarianism]'' (1886)
*''[https://archive.org/details/shelleyprimer00saltrich A Shelley Primer]'' (1887)
*''Flesh or Fruit? An Essay on Food Reform'' (1888)
*''[https://archive.org/details/lifeofjamesthoms00saltuoft The Life of James Thomson (B.V.)]'' (1889)
*''[https://archive.org/details/lifeofhenrydavid00saltuoft Life of Henry David Thoreau]'' (1890)
*''[http://animal-rights-library.com/texts-c/salt01.htm Animals' Rights: Considered in Relation to Social Progress]'' (1892)
*''[https://archive.org/details/richardjefferies00salt Richard Jefferies: A Study]'' (1894)
*''[https://archive.org/details/cu31924022198521 Selections from Thoreau]'' (1895)
*''[https://archive.org/details/percybyssheshell00saltuoft Percy Bysshe Shelley: Poet and Pioneer]'' (1896)
*''[https://archive.org/details/logicvegetarian00saltgoog The Logic of Vegetarianism: Essays and Dialogues]'' (1899)
*''Richard Jefferies: His Life and His Ideas'' (1905)
*''[https://archive.org/details/faithrichardjef00saltgoog The Faith of Richard Jefferies]'' (1906)
*''[https://archive.org/details/cu31924104090745 Cambrian and Cumbrian Hills: Pilgrimages to Snowdon and Scafell]'' (1908)
*''The Humanities of Diet'' (1914) ([http://animal-rights-library.com/texts-c/salt02.htm two] [http://animal-rights-library.com/texts-c/salt03.htm excerpts])
*''[https://www.google.com/books/edition/Killing_for_Sport/2yU4AQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PR3&printsec=frontcover Killing for Sport: Essays by Various Writers]'' (1915), edited by Henry S. Salt<ref>{{cite book |editor-last= Salt |editor-first= Henry S. |editor-link= Henry Stephens Salt |title= Killing for Sport: Essays by Various Writers |year= 1915 |orig-year= 1914 |publisher= [[George Bell & Sons]] |location= London |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=2yU4AQAAMAAJ&pg=PR3}} Preface by [[George Bernard Shaw]]. The Appendix includes seven essays by Salt, including "Sport as a Training for War" and "Blooding" (comprising "The Blooding of Children" and "The Blooding of Hounds").</ref>
*''[https://archive.org/details/cu31924029750357 Seventy Years among Savages]'' (1921)
*''[https://archive.org/details/thecallofthewild34380gut Call of the Wildflower]'' (1922)
*''The Story of My Cousins'' (1923)
*''Homo Rapiens and Other Verses'' (1926)
*''Our Vanishing Wildflowers'' (1928)
*''Memories of Bygone Eton'' (1928)
*''The Heart of Socialism'' (1928)
*''Company I Have Kept'' (1930)
*''Cum Grano'' (1931)
*''[[iarchive:creedofkinship0000salt|The Creed of Kinship]]'' (1935)

==See also==
*[[Blooding (hunting)]]
*[[List of animal rights advocates]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Hendrick, George. ''Henry Salt: Humanitarian Reformer and Man of Letters'' (1977)
*Hendrick, George and Hendrick, Willene Hendrick. (eds.) ''The Savour of Salt: A Henry Salt Anthology''. Centaur Press, 1989. {{ISBN|0-900001-30-5}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links|v=no|n=no|b=no|wikt=no|author=yes}}

* {{Gutenberg author|id=36994|name=Henry S. Salt}}
* {{Internet Archive author|sname=Henry Stephens Salt}}
* {{librivox author|id=11585}}
* [https://findoes.etoncollege.com/henry-stephens-salt/ Henry Stephens Salt] at Find Old Etonians
* [https://www.walden.org/work/the-books-of-henry-s-salt-1887-1937/ The Books of Henry S. Salt, 1887-1937]
* {{Google books|YpcNRavAqAQC|Ethical Vegetarianism (Henry S. Salt)|page=115}}
* [https://www.henrysalt.co.uk/ Henry S. Salt Society]

{{Animal rights|advocates}}
{{People in veganism and vegetarianism}}
{{Vegetarian Society}}
{{Mohandas K. Gandhi}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salt, Henry Stephens}}
[[Category:1851 births]]
[[Category:1939 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century British biographers]]
[[Category:19th-century British educators]]
[[Category:19th-century British male writers]]
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[[Category:20th-century British male writers]]
[[Category:Alumni of King's College, Cambridge]]
[[Category:Anti-hunting activists]]
[[Category:British anti–death penalty activists]]
[[Category:British charity and campaign group workers]]
[[Category:British social reformers]]
[[Category:British vegetarianism activists]]
[[Category:British activists]]
[[Category:British animal rights activists]]
[[Category:British animal rights scholars]]
[[Category:British anti-vivisectionists]]
[[Category:British atheists]]
[[Category:British autobiographers]]
[[Category:British biographers]]
[[Category:British essayists]]
[[Category:British literary critics]]
[[Category:British male non-fiction writers]]
[[Category:British naturalists]]
[[Category:British pacifists]]
[[Category:British socialists]]
[[Category:Organization founders]]
[[Category:People associated with the Vegetarian Society]]
[[Category:People from Nainital]]
[[Category:People educated at Eton College]]
[[Category:Teachers at Eton College]]
[[Category:Vegetarianism writers]]