Henry Bailey Stevens

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Henry Bailey Stevens
BornJuly 13, 1891
Hooksett, New Hampshire
Died1976
Occupation(s)Playwright, writer

Henry Bailey Stevens (July 13, 1891 – 1976)[1] was an American author, playwright and vegetarianism activist.

Biography[edit]

Stevens was born in 1891 in Hooksett, New Hampshire.[2] He graduated from Manchester Central High School and Dartmouth College. From 1912, he worked for the Woman's Journal, a women's rights periodical in Boston.[2] Stevens married Agnes Ryan, the managing editor of the Woman's Journal, in 1915.[2] In 1917 Stevens and Ryan resigned from the Woman's Journal, due in part to their opposition to World War I, a belief not generally shared by the suffrage movement.[2]

Stevens lived with his wife in an old farmstead at the edge of Durham, New Hampshire.[3] Stevens directed the University of New Hampshire Agricultural Station and Cooperative Extension Service from 1918 until his retirement in 1956.

Vegetarianism[edit]

Stevens and his wife were associated with the Millennium Guild, an animal rights organization.[4] In 1949, Curtis Freshel awarded $1,000 to Stevens for the best humanitarian work of the year.[5]

Stevens believed that humans were originally pacifists and vegetarians.[6] He authored The Recovery of Culture, in 1949. The book argues that early humans made the mistake of changing from vegetarianism to flesh-eating and that soil erosion, starving peoples and war is the result.[7] He recommended for people to return to an agricultural plant based culture.

Stevens was a vice-president of the International Vegetarian Union.[8] He attended the 1975 World Vegetarian Congress.[9]

Selected publications[edit]

  • A Cry Out of the Dark (1919)[10]
  • All Alone in the Country (1921)
  • Tolstoy: A Play in Seven Scenes (1928)
  • The Recovery of Culture (1949, with a foreword by Gerald Heard)
  • Para-Desa (1975, with a foreword by Richard Eberhart)

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Stevens, Henry Bailey, 1891-1976". Dartmouth Library Archives & Manuscripts. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c d "Guide to the Henry Bailey Stevens and Agnes Ryan Papers, 1891-1974" Archived 2019-11-13 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved November 13, 2019.
  3. ^ Lord, Russell. (1939). The Agrarian Revival: A Study of Agricultural Extension. American Association for Adult Education. p. 202
  4. ^ Helstosky, Carol. (2015). The Routledge History of Food. Routledge. pp. 188-189. ISBN 978-0-415-62847-1
  5. ^ "First American Vegetarian Convention". International Vegetarian Union. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
  6. ^ Cooper, Helen M; Munich, Adrienne Auslander; Squier, Susan Merrill. (1989). Arms and the Woman: War, Gender, and Literary Representation. University of North Carolina Press. p. 254. ISBN 0-8078-4256-7
  7. ^ Stevens, Henry Bailey (1950). "The Recovery of Culture". Soil Science. 70 (4): 333. Bibcode:1950SoilS..70..333S. doi:10.1097/00010694-195010000-00022.
  8. ^ "23rd IVU World Vegetarian Congress 1975". International Vegetarian Union. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
  9. ^ "23rd IVU World Vegetarian Congress 1975 Congress Program". International Vegetarian Union. Retrieved April 10, 2021.
  10. ^ G. H. C. "Reviewed Work: A Cry Out of the Dark by Henry Bailey Stevens". The Sewanee Review. 28 (2): 243–244. JSTOR 27533314.

External links[edit]

  • "If You Are a Minister," woman suffrage postcard. Social Welfare History Image Portal, Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries.
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