In 1951 Stephen Winsten’s biography of Henry Salt, Salt and His Circle, was published. The first sentence Winsten wrote in chapter one states, “HENRY STEPHENS SHAKESPEAR SALT was born in India…”. As with the rest of his book, Winsten gives no reference for this..
As the first biography of Salt it’s understandable that other researchers and reviewers have taken this as fact, including in George and Willene Hendrick’s excellent The Savour of Salt.
Henry Salt was christened Henry Shakespear Stephens Salt as shown in from the extract from the Register of Baptism for St. John’s in the Wildernesss, Nynee Tal:
This is also confirmed by both Henry Salt’s marriage certificates.
Sadly getting the second word in his biography wrong set the tone for the rest of Winsten’s book. We’ll be examining some of his other claims in future.