Royal Bob

A scholarly biography of the great agnostic and freethought pioneer Robert Ingersoll.

“ARDENT FRIENDS compared [Robert Green Ingersoll] to Shakespeare and Lincoln. Bitter enemies wanted to transport him to the South Seas. Walt Whitman thought he was sent by heaven to save the race from itself. Worried opponents said the Devil had dispatched him to carry on the work of antichrist on earth.

“The name of Robert Green Ingersoll was as well known in most American homes as the captains and the kings of his day. As a Republican he was the Big Voice of the party. As a lawyer he was frequently able to bend juries to his will. As an orator he amused, informed or disquieted auditors in almost every state in the Union. As a rationalist he preached salvation through science.

“A half century after his death it is possible to look at Ingersoll in a perspective which has become more distinct with the passage of time…” (C. H. Cramer)