Rynn Berry | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Rynn Berry at the 2012 World Vegetarian Congress in San Francisco | |
| Born | (1945-01-31)January 31, 1945 |
| Died | January 9, 2014(2014-01-09) (aged 68) |
| Occupation | Author, activist |
| Alma mater | University of Pennsylvania,Columbia University |
| Genre | History and biography, short plays |
| Subject | Vegetarianism and veganism |
Rynn Berry (January 31, 1945 – January 9, 2014) was an American author andscholar onvegetarianism andveganism,[1] as well as a pioneer in theanimal rights and vegan movements.[2]
Berry was born on January 31, 1945, inHonolulu,Hawaii, and grew up inCoconut Grove,Florida, where his mother and maternal siblings lived. He studiedliterature,archeology, andclassics at theUniversity of Pennsylvania, andancient history andcomparative religion atColumbia University.[3][4]
He became vegetarian as a teenager andvegan at the age of 21.[5] He became arawfooder in 1994.[6]
Berry taughtcomparative literature atBaruch College and later culinary history atNew School for Social Research in New York City.[6] He was a scholar of vegetarian history, and wrote a number of books, plays, and other works on this subject.[7]Richard H. Schwartz, founder ofJewish Veg, called his fourth book, the 2004 work,Hitler: Neither Vegetarian Nor Animal Lover (with an introduction byLantern Books's co-founder Martin Rowe) a "thoughtful and carefully documented book."[8] A frequent international lecturer,[9][10][11] Berry's books have been translated into many languages, and he was locally and internationally known in the vegan community.[12][13]
Berry also wrote the entry on the history of vegetarianism in America for theOxford Encyclopedia of American Food and Drink (2004),[14] edited by Andrew Smith, and he was commissioned to write seven entries forThe Oxford Companion to Food and Drink in America (2007).[15] He was also a playwright who contributed a number of short plays about 'famous vegetarians in history'.[16] He wrote a chapter on the history of theraw food movement forBecoming Raw: The Essential Guide to Raw Vegan Diets.[17]
He was also on the advisory boards ofEarthSave,[18] the American Vegetarian Association, and historical advisor to the North American Vegetarian Society.[19] He was an honored member of theAmerican Vegan Society Speakers Bureau, and an instructor atVictoria Moran's Main Street Academy.[20] Berry also contributed to the animal rights movement in Brazil, where he frequently lectured both in English (with a translator) and in Portuguese.[21]
One of Berry's most notable works,Famous Vegetarians and Their Favorite Recipes: Lives and Lore from Buddha to the Beatles,[7] is a collection of biographical sketches of famous people who were vegetarians at some point in their lives. Each chapter also contains an illustration of each of the famous vegetarians profiled, followed by some of their favorite recipes. For theLeonardo da Vinci chapter, he translated for the first time into English recipes fromDe Honesta Voluptate byBartolomeo Platina.[22] The first edition of the book was published in 1989 by Panjandrum Books.[23] In 1995, Pythagorean Publishers released a revised edition with three additional chapters coveringMahavira,Plato andSocrates, andSwami Prabhupada.[24] A review published inVegetarian Times, consideredFamous Vegetarians "scholarship at the end of a fork – and for writing it, he deserves an 'A'."[22] InReligious Vegetarianism: From Hesiod to the Dalai Lama,Kerry S. Walters and Lisa Portmess said that Berry's book is "a twentieth-century parallel" toHoward Williams's classicThe Ethics of Diet.[25] In his bookThe Vegetarian Revolution, Giorgio Cerquetti recommended "everybody to read Rynn Berry's excellent book."[26]
Berry lived alone in an apartment inProspect Heights. He was an enthusiastic amateur runner, despite havingasthma.[27]
He was found collapsed and unconscious in jogging clothes in Prospect Park in theProspect Heights section ofBrooklyn, New York, on December 31, 2013,[27] but not identified until January 7, 2014.[28] The only clues in his pockets were "keys and an asthma inhaler".[29] He never regained consciousness and died at 12:30 pm on January 9, 2014.[27]
Martin Rowe, author and co-founder ofLantern Books, commented on Berry's death:
"Rynn's impact was literally incalculable, given how many met him, bought his books, or talked with him at the Union Square green market over the many years. He was the epitome of the kind of unheralded grassroots activist without which any movement for change cannot grow, and he was a witty and erudite figure: theDr. Johnson of the vegetarian movement. He would be missed greatly, even by those who never met him, but his work will live on."[30]
Author Chef Fran Costigan wrote that Berry was "a gentle soul whose life touched so many."[31]
His life was celebrated publicly and outdoors on March 30, 2014, for about thirty minutes, at the annual Veggie Pride Parade in New York City. On July 5, 2014, he was honored at the annual NAVS Vegetarian Summerfest inJohnstown,Pennsylvania, in a plenary led by vegan activist and authorVictoria Moran. In previous years, Berry had been on the staff of Vegetarian Summerfest as a scholar and speaker on veganism and world religions.[32]
“The Rynn Berry Jr. Papers” are housed in theNorth Carolina State University Libraries’ Special Collections and Research Center.[7]
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