Steven T. Byington

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Steven Tracy Byington (birthname Stephen) (December 10, 1869 – October 12, 1957) was a noted intellectual, translator, and American individualist anarchist. He was born in Westford, Vermont, and later moved to Ballardvale, Massachusetts. A one-time proponent of Georgism, he converted to individualist anarchism after associating with Benjamin Tucker. He was a firm believer in the promotion of individualist anarchism through education. He said "Anarchism has undertaken to change men's minds in one point by removing their faith in force" (Quasi-Invasion and the Boycott in Liberty, X, 2). He began a "Letter Writing Corps" in 1894 which targeted specific individuals, including newspapers, to familiarize others with the philosophical doctrine. He is known for translating at least three anarchist works into English from German: Max Stirner's The Ego and Its Own, Paul Elztbacher's The Great Anarchists: Ideas and Teachings of Seven Major Thinkers, and Elztbacher's Anarchism.

Byington was a cum laude graduate of the University of Vermont in 1891 and a member of the prestigious Phi Beta Kappa. He was considered a master of at least twelve languages. His writings included observations on new forms and changed usage of English words, publishing 25 articles in the journal American Speech from 1926-1946.

Over the course of sixty years he translated the Bible from original texts and entitled it The Bible in Living English. It was published posthumously in 1972 in New York by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. He published a review of the New World Translation of the New Testament, the English translation usually associated with the Jehovah's Witnesses, in The Christian Century magazine, November 1, 1950. He clearly felt that his translation was superior.