Richard Gregg (social philosopher)
Richard Bartlett Gregg (1885-?) was an American social philosopher, who has been said to be "the first American to develop a substantial theory of nonviolent resistance" and an influence on the thinking of Martin Luther King, Jr and civil-rights theorist Bayard Rustin.[1].
Gregg traveled in India in the 1920s to learn about the culture and seek out Gandhi. His many publications include Gandhiji's Satyagraha or non-violent resistence, published in 1930, and The Power of Non-Violence, from 1934. The latter was republished in several editions and was actually published in a Swedish translation already in 1936 (as Den nya maktfaktorn: motstånd utan våld). He was also author of the essay The Value of Voluntary Simplicity (Wallingford, PA: Pendle Hill, 1936), a philosophical essay on the need and benefits of living more simply. He coined the term "voluntary simplicity".