M. E. Billings

M. E. Billings is a hard-to-trace author whose surviving reputation rests on Crimes of Preachers in the United States and Canada. Library and public-domain records confirm that the work appeared in multiple editions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, including editions from The Truth Seeker publishing network and later digitized copies in Project Gutenberg and major library collections.

The book gathers reports of crimes and scandals involving clergy, presenting them as evidence against the idea that religious belief guarantees moral behavior. That argument places Billings within the wider freethought culture of the period, especially the circle around The Truth Seeker, a major American freethought publication.

Very little reliable biographical information about Billings appears to survive in the easily available sources, so details such as full name, dates, and personal background are uncertain. What can be said with confidence is that Billings left behind a provocative work of social and religious criticism that continued to circulate long after its first publication.