From: altar@beaufort.sfu.ca (Ted Wayn Altar)
Subject: Re: American Celebrity Vegetarians
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada
Date: Mon, 9 Nov 1992 04:35:18 GMT

uad1214@dircon.co.uk (Peter Cox) writes:

>Could anyone tell me if there's a list of U.S.
>celebrities who are known to be vegetarian?

>If not, could anyone suggest a few likely names.
>I need this info for an article I'm currently writing.
>Thanks!

Peter, permit me to make some general comments, for what
they are worth.  I've afraid that I don't have much
information about current American vegetarians.  Is
Bob Dylan still a vegetarian (he has gone through
so many changes one never knows)?  I've seen listed
as vegetarians such diverse people as Susan St. James,
Louisa May Alcott, Emerson?, Benjamin Franklin?,
Candice Bergen, Dick Gregory, General William
Booth, Paul Newman, Dr. J. H. Kellogg, James
Coburn, Clint Walker, Upton Sinclair (from 
Vistara Parham's, "What's Wrong with Meat?"
1979, PCAP Publicatins)

Unfortunely, I've seen lists which were simply compiled in too lazy 
a manner.  For example, one list I saw included Samuel Butler a
and Jean Rousseau.  Neither were vegetarians but they did suggest
vegetarianism as the preferred diet for the inhabitants of
their fictional utopian tracts ("Erehwon"  and "Emile").
That their fictional characters were vegetarian is not
evidence that the writers themselves were vegetarian.
Indeed, the biographical evidence in these cases does not
support this inference.  Possibly, Mary Shelly is also one 
of these vegetarians in "fiction", since her monster in Dr.
Frankenstein was depicted as a vegetarian.  Whether Mary
Shelly was a consistent vegetarian like Percy Shelly, is
something I think you need to look into more carefully.

One should, therefore, attempt to document each member of
the list with a good primary source (autobiographies,
authorized biographies, published letters, etc.).

It would also be useful to make some distinctions about the
"kind" of vegetarianism practiced, and some indication of
the reasons for people's vegetarianism.  For instance,
Thoreau only practiced vegetarianism for a few years around
the time he was living at Walden Pond and even then he still
ate fish and even once slaughtered a woodchuck (In the
chapter called Economy, Thoreau writes: "The next year I
sometimes caught a mess of fish for my dinner, and once I
went so far as to slaughter a woodchuck which ravaged my
bean-field, -- effect his transmigration, as a Tarter would
say, -- and devour him, partly for experiment's sake").
Hence, Thoreau's his practice of vegetarianism only
consisted of a short period in his life.   He simply was not
a long-term vegetarian, nor during the period he was one
was he always a completely consistent one.  I think for
at least 1 year he was consistent in his vegetarian experiment
in living.
.
Hence, some distinction between vegetarians might be useful,
like:  long-term vs short-term,
       consistent vs inconsistent,
       ethical vs religious vs medical,
       practicing vs one who merely preached vegetarianism

Two good references on famous vegetarians, if you are not
already aware of them, are:

   Janet Barkas, THE VEGETABLE PASSION 1975, N.Y.: Charles
      Scribner's Sons.  (from which the above passage
      is taken)

   Daniel Dombrowski's THE PHILOSOPHY OF VEGETARIANISM,
      1984, Amherst: The University of Mass. Pr.

Dombrowski's work is an excellent source concerning the
ancient Greek and Roman vegetarians.  Barkas's work is not
as scholarly but it is a good place to start and she does at
least provide some sources.  I know that Dombrowski's
book is not what you are currently interested in,
so I simply mention it to you simply for future reference.

Also, vegetarian times is a good source for current
American celebrites (usually movie stars, unfortunately)
being interview about their vegetarian practice.
                                       
Hope some of this was of some help.  Good luck.

                           ted



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