author
M. R. L. (Maud Russell Lorraine) Sharpe
1867–1949
A Boston socialite turned outspoken reformer, she used food writing and public advocacy to argue for kinder treatment of animals. Her best-known book, The Golden Rule Cook Book, brought vegetarian cooking to a wide early-20th-century audience.
1 Audiobook
The Golden Rule Cook Book: Six hundred recipes for meatless dishes
by M. R. L. (Maud Russell Lorraine) Sharpe
About the author
Born Maud Russell Lorraine Carpenter in 1867, she later wrote as M. R. L. Sharpe and was also known as Emarel Freshel. She was remembered not just as an author, but as a designer and an activist whose work connected vegetarianism with concern for animals.
Her most lasting book credit is The Golden Rule Cook Book: Six Hundred Recipes for Meatless Dishes, a substantial vegetarian cookbook first published in the early 1900s. Rather than treating meatless cooking as a fad, the book presented it as part of an ethical way of living, which helps explain why it still attracts interest from readers of food history and humane reform.
She was also active in animal-protection work and is associated with the Millennium Guild, a group that promoted opposition to cruelty and encouraged humane habits in daily life. She died in 1949, leaving behind a life that blended social influence, advocacy, and practical writing.