Vol. 1 1877 Lecture
Ghosts
An examination of how fear gave birth to the gods — how primitive humanity, confronted by the terror of death and the unknown, invented supernatural explanations that persist to…
The Dresden Edition
The Complete Works
Twelve volumes. A lifetime of thought. Free to read.
About the Dresden Edition
After Ingersoll's death in 1899, his complete works were compiled and published between 1900 and 1902 in twelve volumes by his family and admirers. The edition takes its name from Dresden, New York — the village where he was born in 1833.
The twelve volumes contain his lectures, essays, political speeches, legal arguments, tributes, prose poems, and correspondence. All texts are in the public domain.
Vol. 1 1872 Lecture
The Gods
Ingersoll's first and most celebrated freethought lecture — a sweeping examination of how humanity invented its gods, and a passionate defense of reason as the only honest guide.
Vol. 2 1879 Lecture
Some Mistakes of Moses
A meticulous, witty, and often devastating examination of the historical, scientific, and moral contradictions of the Old Testament — Ingersoll at his most formidable and most…
Vol. 2 1880 Lecture
What Must We Do to Be Saved?
An examination of the orthodox doctrine of salvation — its history, its internal contradictions, and its moral consequences — from one of America's most formidable critics of…
Vol. 3 1874 Lecture
Heretics and Heresies
A defense of the heretic as the true hero of human progress — and a demand that every person be granted the right to reach their own conclusions by their own road.
Vol. 3 1869 Lecture
Humboldt
Ingersoll's first major public oration — a celebration of the great German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt as the ideal of the scientific mind and the humanist spirit.
Vol. 3 1881 Lecture
The Great Infidels
A magnificent rehabilitation of history's greatest freethinkers — Bruno, Galileo, Voltaire, Hume, Paine — arguing that it is the heretics, not the faithful, who have been…
Vol. 3 1870 Lecture
Thomas Paine
Ingersoll's passionate rehabilitation of America's great forgotten founder — rescuing Paine's reputation from those who wished to erase his deist and freethought legacy from the…
Vol. 4 1898 Lecture
Superstition
One of Ingersoll's last great lectures — a powerful examination of how superstition still poisons human life, and a vision of the world that reason and science might yet create.
Vol. 4 1877 Lecture
The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child
One of Ingersoll's most beloved lectures — a passionate celebration of individual freedom, the rights of women and children, and the transforming power of love and human…
Vol. 4 1897 Lecture
The Truth
A late-career meditation on truth as humanity's highest pursuit — and on the courage required to seek it honestly in a world that rewards comfortable falsehood.
Vol. 4 1899 Lecture
What Is Religion?
Ingersoll's final major lecture — delivered in 1899, the year of his death — asking the fundamental question: what should religion actually be, and what do the established…
Vol. 4 1896 Lecture
Why I Am an Agnostic
Ingersoll's definitive statement of his agnosticism — not as a negation, but as an honest acknowledgment of the limits of human knowledge and a celebration of intellectual…
Vol. 6 1876 Political Speeches
The Plumed Knight
The most celebrated piece of political oratory in American history — the speech that made Ingersoll a national figure overnight and remains a model of the art of the nominating…
Vol. 8 1876 Tribute
Decoration Day
One of Ingersoll's most beautiful ceremonial addresses — a meditation on the men who died in the Civil War, the meaning of their sacrifice, and the America they helped to create.
Vol. 8 1892 Tribute
Tribute to Walt Whitman
Ingersoll's moving funeral oration for his friend Walt Whitman — one of the most beautiful tributes one great American writer has ever paid to another.
Dresden Edition contents
Lectures — Part One
The Gods, Humboldt, Thomas Paine, Ghosts, Heretics and Heresies, and other early lectures.
Lectures — Part Two
Some Mistakes of Moses, The Clergy and Common Sense, Liberty of Man, and other lectures.
Lectures — Part Three
The Great Infidels, About the Holy Bible, The Foundations of Faith, and others.
Lectures — Part Four
Why I Am an Agnostic, What is Religion?, Superstition, The Truth, and others.
Interviews & Discussions
Conversations and press interviews on religion, science, politics, and life.
Political Speeches
The Plumed Knight speech, campaign orations, and public addresses on political matters.
Legal Arguments
Courtroom addresses, including the defense in the Star Route postal fraud trials.
Prose Poems & Tributes
Tributes to the dead, prose poems, and ceremonial addresses.
Poetry & Literary Essays
Ingersoll's own poems and his essays on Shakespeare, Burns, and other writers.
Miscellaneous Writings
Prefaces, reviews, philosophical fragments, and shorter pieces.
Life & Letters
Biographical materials, personal correspondence, and tributes to Ingersoll.
Additional Writings
Additional essays, letters, and posthumously collected writings.