Long Nineteenth Century Ephemera

Abstract

The Edinburgh Companion to Vegan Literary Studies edited by Laura Wright and Emelia Quinn provides a scholarly overview of the field of vegan literary studies, looking at the relationship between literature and veganism across a range of periods, cultures and genres. Chapter 23 is on the long-nineteenth century ephemera that provides concrete evidence of vegetarian and vegan thought in printed materials. Focused on the US and UK the chapter offers an encyclopedic history of the physical traces of debates around what vegetarians were to eat and wear, and offers an analysis of anti-vegetarian satires and their role in shaping public perception of those abstaining from meat. It provides a textual history of vegetarianism and veganism in print, not just among vegetarian Society publications but in the wider press and associated movements: demonstrating that vegetarianism and veganism sparked vocal debates and discussions in the mainstream and vegetarian press.