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USA: 19th Century

A collection of articles:
Note - these are not just lists of 'famous vegetarians' - they are people with a view on the subject, and the articles explain whether they put those veiws into practice.

IVU Manager's blogs
Veganism from 1806 - a brief timeline summary
Sylvester Graham - the original American vegan baker
Taking the Waters - transatlantic pioneer plant-food doctors 
Bronson Alcott - American pioneer vegan
Henry David Thoreau and the Roots of Plantism
The First Vegan Cookbook - New York 1874

Complete Old Books

History of the Philadelphia Bible-Christian Church from 1817 to 1917 (PDF 2mb) pub.1922

A Defence of the Graham System of Living: Or, Remarks on Diet and Regimen. Dedicated to the Rising Generation (link to archive.org), by Sylvester Graham New York, 1835

Lectures on the Science of Human Life (link to archive.org) by Sylvester Graham, pub. by William Horsell (see below) London 1854

The philosophy of sacred history considered in relation to human aliment and the wines of Scripture (link to archive.org) - by Sylvester Graham, edited by Henry S. Clubb, 1859 - by Sylvester Graham, edited by Henry S. Clubb, pub. W. Horsell, London, 1859

Lectures to ladies on anatomy and physiology (link to archive.org) by Mary Gove Nichols, Boston, 1842 - many references to the vegetable diet.

Bronson Alcott's Fruitlands (1843) (link to archive.org) compiled by Clara Endicott Sears with Transcendental Wild Oats (1876) by Louisa May Alcott, 1915 edition

Religion, Natural and Revealed (link to archive.org): by Orson S. Fowler, New York, 1st pib. 1844, 10th edition 1848 p.136: Were a flesh diet productive of no other evil consequence than lowering ... benevolence that alone should forever annihilate so barbarous a practice'.

Physiology, animal and mental (link to archive.org) by Orson S. Fowler, New York, 1847, 5th edition 1851 (half of Fowler & Wells, NY, which published many of the veg-related books on this page).

The Hydropathic Encyclopedia Vol.2 (link to archive.org) by Russell Trall, New York, 1851 Trall was a founder member of the American Vegetarian Society in 1850.

Hydrotherapy or The Water-Cure (link to archive.org) by Joel Shew, New York 1851. Shew was a Vice-president of the American Vegetarian Society.

Philosophy of Health: Natural Principles of Health and Cure (link to archive.org ) by Larkin Baker Coles M.D. Boston, first pub. 1848 - 26th revised edition 1851 (claims 28,000 sold) p.51 The Quality of Foods (promotes vegetable diet)

Recollections of a busy life (link to archive.org) by Horace Greeley (1811-1872) pub.1868 - editor of the NY Tribune and a vegetarian from about 1835. p.98: Chapter VIII - Temperance in all things

Horace Greeley Voice Of The People (link to archive.org) by William Harlan Hale, 1950.

Walden (link to archive.org) by Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), first pub.1854. This edition with intro by Will H. Dircks, 1886.

Life and writings of Henry David Thoreau (link to archive.org) by Henry S. Salt, witten 1890 - 1896 edition.

Thoreau's philosophy of life, with special consideration of the influence of Hindoo philosophy (PDF 11mb) by Helena A. Snyder, Dissertation, Heidelberg University, 1902. p.20 Absitence from meat eating

Health: Its Friends and Foes (link to archive.org) by Reuben D. Mussey M.D., LL.D, Boston, 1862. p.169: Chapter VIII - Man by nature a vegetable eater - vegetarianism

The stomach: its disorders and how to cure them (link to archive.org) by J. H. Kellogg, Battle Creek, 1896

The Golden Age Cook Book (link to archive.org) by Henrietta Latham Dwight, New York, 1898

Every living creature; or, Heart-training through the animal world (link to archive.org) by Ralph Waldo Trine, 1899

The Vivisection Question (link to archive.org) articles from 1880 to 1900 compiled by Albert Leffingwell M.D, 1901

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