William Mackintire Salter

William Mackintire Salter (January 30, 1853 – July 18, 1931) was the author of several books on philosophy and a critical and enduring major classic on Nietzsche. He was also a special lecturer for the Department of Philosophy in the University of Chicago and a pioneer in the Ethical movement.

Life and work William Mackintire Salter was born in Burlington, Iowa on January 30, 1853. Salter's parents were William Salter, a long-serving Congregational minister, and Mary Ann Salter (née Mackintire). Their first child, Eliza Webb, was born on 20 January 1888. On 2 December 1889 Salter's book, Ethical Religion, influenced Mohandas K. Gandhi, who published a summary in Gujarati in 1907.

Salter has been called 'perhaps the most perceptive and prescient' of Nietzsche's early interpreters.

Death Salter died on July 18, 1931, at his summer home in Silver Lake, New Hampshire. His wife, adopted son, and two brothers (Sumner and George Salter) survived him. He was cremated and his ashes buried at his New Hampshire Hilltop in Silver Lake.

Works

Do the ethics of Jesus satisfy the needs of our time? (1882) Prayer and an ethical view of life (1882) Why Unitarianism Does Not Satisfy Us (1883) The ethical movement; its philosophical basis; its general aims, etc. Three addresses (1884) Ethical Religion (1889) First Steps in Philosophy (Physical and Ethical) (1892) Anarchy or Government? An Inquiry in Fundamental Politics (1895) The Conflict of the Catholic Church with the French republic (1907) Nietzsche the thinker; a study (1917) (at Internet Archive)