Edward Payson Evans (December 8, 1831 – March 6, 1917) was an American scholar, linguist and early advocate for

animal rights Animal rights is the philosophy according to which many or all Animal consciousness, sentient animals have moral worth that is independent of their Utilitarianism, utility for humans, and that their most basic interests—such as avoiding s ...

. He is best known for his 1906 book on animal trials, ''The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals.''

Biography

Evans was born in Remsen, New York in 1831. His father was a Welsh

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

clergyman. Evans earned a

Bachelor of Arts Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four year ...

from the

University of Michigan , mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth" , former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821) , budget = $10.3 billion (2021) , endowment = $17 billion (2021)As o ...

in 1854. He then taught at an academy in Hernando, Mississippi, for one year, before becoming a professor at

Carroll University Carroll University is a private university affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and located in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Established in 1846, Carroll was Wisconsin's first four-year institution of higher learning. History Prior to its estab ...

(then Carroll College) in

Waukesha, Wisconsin Waukesha ( ) is the county seat of Waukesha County, Wisconsin, United States. It is part of the Milwaukee metropolitan area. Its population was 71,158 at the 2020 census. The city is adjacent to the Village of Waukesha. History The area tha ...

. From 1858 to 1862, he traveled abroad, studying at the universities of

Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the capital of the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, the population was 118,911. General information The ori ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...

and

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

. On his return to the United States, he became professor of modern languages at the

. In 1868, he married Elizabeth Edson Gibson. In 1870, Evans resigned his position at Michigan and went abroad again, where he gathered materials for a history of German literature, and also made a specialty of oriental languages. While living in Munich, he became a fixture at the Royal Library of Munich, and joined the staff of the political journal '' Allgemeine Zeitung'' in 1884. Evans' wife died in 1911 and when

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

broke out in 1914, he returned to the United States, where he lived in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Evans died at his home in New York on March 6, 1917.

Legacy

Evans' 1906 book ''The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals'', is considered to be the seminal work on the topic of animal trials. In recent years the book has been the subject of several critiques. Environmental historian

Roderick Nash Roderick Frazier Nash is a professor emeritus of history and environmental studies at the University of California Santa Barbara. He was the first person to descend the Tuolumne River using a raft. Scholarly biography Nash received his Bache ...

argues that both Evans and J. Howard Moore, "deserve more recognition than they have received as the first professional philosophers in the United States to look beyond anthropocentrism."

Selected works

Articles

* " Linguistic Paleontology", ''The Atlantic Monthly'', Vol. 53, Iss. 5, May 1884, pp. 613–622 * " Bugs and Beasts before the Law", ''The Atlantic Monthly'', Vol. 54, Iss. 2, Aug. 1884, pp. 235–247 *
Artists and Art Life in Munich
, ''Cosmopolitan'', Vol. 9, Iss. 1, May 1890, pp. 3–13 * " Speech as a Barrier Between Man and Beast", ''The Atlantic Monthly'', Vol. 68, Iss. 3, Sept. 1891, pp. 299–312 * " The Nearness of Animals to Men", ''The Atlantic Monthly'', Volume 69, Iss. 2, Feb. 1892, pp. 171–184 *" Ethical Relations Between Man and Beast", ''Popular Science Monthly'', Volume 45, Sept. 1894

Books

* ''Abriss der deutschen Literaturgesehichte'' (New York: Leypoldt & Holt, 1869) *
A Progressive German Reader: With notes and a Complete Vocabulary
' (New York: Holt & Williams, 1869) *
Animal Symbolism in Art and Literature
' (London: W. Heinemann, 1896) * '' Animal Symbolism in Ecclesiastical Architecture'' (New York: H. Holt and Company, 1896) * ''History of German Literature'' in (5 vols., 1898) * '' Evolutional Ethics and Animal Psychology'' (New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1897) * '' The Criminal Prosecution and Capital Punishment of Animals'' (London: W. Heinemann, 1906)

Translations

Adolf Stahr Adolf Wilhelm Theodor Stahr (; 22 October 18053 October 1876) was a German writer and literary historian. Life Stahr was the son of the preacher and pastor Johann Adam Stahr (1768–1839). He attended grammar school in Prenzlau. In 1825 at the ...

, ''The Life and Works of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing'' (with an introduction; 2 vols., Boston, 1866) *

Athanase Josué Coquerel Athanase Josué Coquerel (16 June 182024 July 1875) was a French Protestant theologian. Life The son of Athanase Laurent Charles Coquerel, he was born in Amsterdam and studied theology at Geneva and at Strasbourg, and at an early age succeeded ...

, ''First Historical Transformations of Christianity'' (1867)

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Edward Payson 1831 births 1917 deaths 19th-century American male writers 19th-century American translators 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American translators American animal rights scholars American people of Welsh descent American philologists Carroll University faculty Linguists from the United States People from Remsen, New York University of Michigan alumni University of Michigan faculty