Reddie Mallett
{{short description|English naturopath and writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Reddie Mallett
| image =
| birth_date = 18 February 1864
| birth_place = Shoreditch
| death_date = {{dda|1938|9|7|1864|df=y}}
| death_place = Dunsford
| occupation = Naturopath, writer
}}
Josiah Reddie Martin Mallett (18 February 1864 – 7 September 1938), known as Reddie Mallett, was an English freethinker, naturopath, poet and writer.
Career
Mallett was born on 18 February 1864 in London.Wright, W. H. K. (1896). [https://archive.org/details/westcountrypoets00wrigrich/page/318/mode/2up West-Country Poets: Their Lives and Works]. London: Elliot Stock. p. 319 He was educated at Mill Hill Grammar School and as a young man took interest in literature and poetry. He authored books and pamphlets on natural health that were published by Watts & Co.Cooke, Bill. (2004). The Gathering of Infidels: A Hundred Years of the Rationalist Press Association. Prometheus Books. pp. 284-286. {{ISBN|9781591021964}} His most popular book Nature's Way: A Means of Health Without Medicine sold well in the United Kingdom. By 1926 it was in its 18th edition and had sold 185,000 copies.Unprecedented Success of a Wonderful Health Book. Weekly Dispatch (October 17, 1926). p. 10 It also sold well in Australia and was reprinted as How to Get Well: According to Nature's Way.Martyr, Philippa. (2002). Paradise of Quacks: An Alternative History of Medicine in Australia. Macleay Press. p. 229. {{ISBN|9781876492076}} A revised edition was edited by George Ryley Scott in 1948.[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/776932616 "Nature's Way Edited and Revised by George Ryley Scott"]. www.worldcat.org. Retrieved March 28, 2021.
Mallett gave special importance to diet for attaining health without medicine.Stark, James F. (2020). The Cult of Youth: Anti-Ageing in Modern Britain. Cambridge University Press. p. 75. {{ISBN|978-1108484152}} He promoted natural remedies and the consumption of fruit and vegetable juices. He opposed the use of drugs and had no faith in physicians and surgeons.{{cite journal|year=|title=Reviewed Works: How To Conquer Consumption by David Masters; The Book Of Health by Reddie Mallett; Cancer In Native Races by Frederick L. Hoffman; San Francisco Cancer Survey by Frederick L. Hoffman|journal=The British Medical Journal|volume=1|issue=3457|pages=669–670}} His 1926 Book of Health promoted a diet of fruit juice and to cure all ailments by lemon juice and olive oil. Mallett stated that lemon juice is a marvellous disinfectant that is unrecognized by medical science and can cure many diseases including cancer. The book was criticized in 1931 as statements in the book contravened the Venereal Diseases Act of 1917.Kearney, Patrick J; Boothroyd, David. (2013). [http://scissors-and-paste.net/pdf/SS.pdf Notes Towards a Catalogue of the British Library's S.S. Collection]. London & Santa Rosa. pp. 167-168 The British Social Hygiene Council and the Ministry for Health were concerned about its harmful advice regarding self-treatment of syphilis. The book was withdrawn by the publisher. This was the only book Mallett authored that was withdrawn by Watts & Co. He continued to author many other books for them on naturopathy that were published in the 1930s. His dietary views influenced Portia Geach.{{cite journal|author=Gardiner, Thea|year=2023|title='The Nation's Health Is the Nation's Wealth': Portia Geach (1873–1959) and the Good Health Movement in Interwar Australia|journal=Australian Historical Studies|volume=55|issue=1|pages=90-114|doi=10.1080/1031461X.2023.2208590|doi-access=free}}
In 1935, Mallett stated that he could "live quite well" on a diet of fruit juices and he was walking over a hundred miles each month.Dietetic Discrepancies. Daily Mirror (January 15, 1935). p. 11
Death
Mallett died at Dunsford on 7 September 1938. His estate valued at £1,933 was granted to his widow Mrs. Clara Mallett.Mr. J. R. M. Mallett, Dunsford. Western Morning News (December 28, 1938). p. 9
Selected publications
{{collist|
- [https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008960240 A Life's History Told in Homely Verse: And Miscellaneous Poems] (1895)
- Poems (1901)
- Freedom Songs (1916)
- The Gospel of Feeding: From Childhood to Old Age (1925)
- Nature's Way: A Means of Health Without Medicine (1926, 1930)
- The Book of Health (1926)
- Constipation and Cancer (1927)
- Nature's Rebuilding Power (1927)
- Poems from Beyond (1927)
- The Cure of Cancer (1928)
- Food the Physician (1931)
- Cancer: A Word of Hope (1932)
- The Way to Health (1932)
- [https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.203964/page/n7/mode/2up Too Much Doctoring] (1932)
- Diet and Treatment in Sickness and Health (1933)
- Preventable Suffering (1934)
}}
References
{{Reflist}}
{{Naturopathy}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mallett, Reddie}}
Category:19th-century English poets
Category:20th-century English poets
Category:Alternative cancer treatment advocates
Category:Alternative medicine activists
Category:British anti-vaccination activists
Category:English vegetarianism activists
Category:English health and wellness writers