Henry Bailey Stevens

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

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

Biography

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

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
  • 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
  1. "Stevens, Henry Bailey, 1891-1976". Dartmouth Library Archives & Manuscripts. Retrieved November 25, 2020.
  2. "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.
  • "If You Are a Minister," woman suffrage postcard. Social Welfare History Image Portal, Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries.
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