Henry Stephens Salt (1851-1939) was an English writer and social reformer whose work brought praise from many quarters. Unlike many zealots for a cause, Henry Salt always demonstrated great logic and wit to show the folly of those who opposed progress. In this, he was not unlike his great contemporary, the playwright Bernard Shaw. Salt wrote studies of Thoreau, Percy Shelley and Richard Jefferies the writer and naturalist. Wherever Henry Salt is remembered today it is largely for his work on animal rights, not least in his classic Animals' Rights Considered in Relation to Social Progress. Another work, A Plea for Vegetarianism, was well ahead of its time too.