Henry Salt is not well know today but his work for humanitarian causes brought him praise from the likes of Mahatma Gandhi. It was Henry Salt's book A Plea for Vegetarianism that had a profound influence on Mahatma Gandhi's vegetarian beliefs. But it was Salt's book on Thoreau's, then little known writer, that was to help shape history, as Gandhi himself acknowledged the intellectual debt to Thoreau's essay on "civil disobedience" and Henry Salt in his own formulation of civil disobedience and non-violent noncooperation. Henry Salt wrote nearly 40 books most of which cogently argued and urged for some much needed humane reforms in prisons, schools, in the economic organisations of society at large, and in the treatment of animals. He was the founder of the Humanitarian League and editor of their publications.

Even some sixty years after his death, Henry Stephens Salt's writings on humanitarian causes are still of profound importance to humanitarian campaigners as many of the issues Salt wrote about are still as important today. Bloodsports continue in the U.K., his book Killing for Sport along with his other writings on fox hunting, hare coursing, stag hunting, cub hunting clearly demonstrate the sophisms used by the bloodsport apologists. His masterpiece Animals' Rights Considered in Relation to Social Progress remains the best book on animal rights. Whatever humanitarian cause he chose to write about he demonstrated great wit to show the folly of those who opposed progress. His autobiographies are a fascinating and amusing record of England during his lifetime, particularly of Eton, his friends, and socialism. And of course his studies of Thoreau, Shelley and Jefferies remain among the most insightful ever written. In particular, his Life of Henry David Thoreau is regarded by many as the finest on the subject and has recently been republished in paperback.

The five books listed below are essential reading for anyone interested in Henry S. Salt.

The Savour of Salt: A Henry Salt Anthology
Edited by George and Willene Hendrick
Visitors to this site can buy this book at a special reduced price (rrp £12.95). More details
This selection offers insights into Henry Salt, the humanitarian reformer whose thinking was so far ahead of his generation, the biographer and critic whose essays and books were highly influential and the poet whose wit and perception could "turn a rhyme and overturn a fool". A child of privilege in Victorian England, Henry S. Salt relinquished his conventional life as an Eton master to live and work for causes such as animal rights, vegetarianism, socialism, conservation and other humanitarian movements now better understood than they were during his lifetime. Salt was also a committed man of letters, writing on Shelley, Thoreau, and De Quincey amongst others. His friendships included Edward Carpenter, Mahatma Gandhi and George Bernard Shaw. This anthology celebrates the anniversary of a remarkable and compassionate man who may be said to have died at least 50 years before his time. More details and where to buy a copy including a review.

"Its arguments are forerunners to today's debate ... becoming a recognised academic discipline," New Scientist

Animals' Rights Considered in Relation to Social Progress
Salt's classics with a preface by the Peter Singer. Animals' Rights is a practical book. Initially Salt sets forth the principle of animals' rights. He then describes the ways and means of the suffering imposed on animals as an inevitable consequence of the denial of rights. In the course of the book he refutes, often with humour, every argument advanced against animal rights in his lifetime and anticipates and refutes those still to be made. The conclusion offers guidance on "Lines of Reform" in which he explains the importance of an intellectual, literary and social crusade against the central cause of oppression: the disregard of the natural kinship between man and the animals and the consequent denial of their rights.
He urged his readers to look back to the days when human slaves were excluded from the common pale of humanity, with the same hypocritical fallacies used to justify that exclusion as are invoked in the case of animals. By then looking forward; the moral can hardly be mistaken, he said. More Info

"A masterpiece; it remains one of the most lucid and persuasive of all the books written in defense of animals," Keith Thomas, New York Review of Books

Henry S. Salt's Life of Henry David Thoreau
Edited George Hendrick, Willene Hendrick, and Fritz Oehlschlaeger
Henry Salt abandoned his mastership at Eton in the 1880s to devote himself to causes including vegetarianism, socialism, animals' rights, conservation, and prison reform. He remained a literary critic of distinction, publishing in 1890 the initial version of Thoreau's Life. With the help of American friends, he revised the book and published it anew in 1896. This third version, never before published, gives us Salt's final reading of Thoreau based on important works published up to 1908, including Thoreau's complete Journal. Combining a concise narrative of Thoreau's life with a perceptive treatment of his ideas and writings, it stands as a penetrating study of Thoreau, stressing his distinctive individuality. Through analysis of the text and a concise biography, the editors illustrate Salt's growth as a scholar and his changing views on Thoreau and Thoreau's philosophy. It will appeal to readers interested in Thoreau or American literature. More Info

Henry Salt: Humanitarian Reformer and Man of Letters
by George Hendrick
The precepts that had governed Henry S. Salt's long-time rebellion against convention were re-emphasized at his burial in remarks read exactly as he had written them: "I shall die, as I have lived, a rationalist, socialist, pacifist and humanitarian." Once the death notices had been published and his devotion to a multitude of causes acknowledged, this extraordinary man was forgotten. In 1951 Stephen Winsten published a short book that made Salt known again; Hendrick goes beyond basic biographical facts to examine the originality of Henry Salt the humanitarian. The volume variously concentrates on Salt's conventional youth and conversion to vegetarianism, socialism, and other 'isms', his place as a British man of letters, his interest in the ideas of Thoreau, and friendships with George Bernard Shaw, Mahatma Gandhi, and several other writers. Hendrick gives a clear, concise treatment of the intellectual life and work as social and literary critic of a figure who may be considered unique in his commitment to humanitarian goals. The book includes extensive quotations from many of the radical publications of the 1880s and 1890s in which Salt was published, as well as statements he made in Humanity and The Humane Review, two of his own publications. The appendix includes two of Salt's propaganda plays.

This account of Salt is a convincing presentation of his thoughts and works showing that Salt was much more significant and interesting figure in the Age of Shaw than is generally known or acknowledged. More Info

Seventy Years Among Savages
Henry Salt's autobiography Seventy Years Among Savages was last published in 1921, he later updated it but it was never published. George Hendrick submitted this revised version for publication to Centaur Press and although there were plans to publish it in 1992 it never materialised. The fact that George Hendrick, who knows Salt's work better than anyone, rates it as one of Salt's most important works gives you some idea of its importance. Hopefully Open Gate Press will decide to publish this book in the near future.