An Ivan Illich Reading List
Ivan Illich’s core books remain in print (paperback and ebooks), chiefly through Equinox Publishing in Sheffield, which now holds the Marion Boyars list, Illich’s original publisher. This includes Celebration of Awareness, Deschooling Society, Tools for Convivality, H2O and the Waters of Forgetfulness, Limits to Medicine, Energy and Equity, Celebration of Awareness, Disabling Professions, The Right to Useful Unemployment, Shadow Work, Gender, In the Mirror of the Past, and ABC: The Alphabetization of the Popular Mind, and In the Vineyard of the Text, Beyond Economics and Ecology, The Powerless Church. For 2026, Equinox announced The Loss of the Senses (17 essays, described as new to English) and a reissue of Toward a History of Needs.
Penn State University Press keeps an active series, “Ivan Illich: 21st-Century Perspectives,” which includes The Powerless Church and Other Selected Writings, 1955–1985 (recently acquired by Equinox) and David Cayley’s 2021 study Ivan Illich: An Intellectual Journey. The University of Chicago Press publishes the hardback edition of In the Vineyard of the Text; and House of Anansi publishes the Cayley interview books Ivan Illich in Conversation and The Rivers North of the Future.
Where a free copy exists, it’s linked here. Libraries, universities, and admirers own these sources, and some may not be official, authorized editions, so treat them as reading copies and check a print edition before you quote. The fullest collection is David Tinapple’s Illich archive, and ivanillich.org.mx keeps the Spanish-language collection. There’s also the International Journal of Illich Studies, published from 2010-2021, now archived at Penn State.
- Illich, Ivan. Deschooling Society. New York: Harper & Row, 1971. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ivan-illich-deschooling-society.
- Illich, Ivan. Energy and Equity. London: Calder & Boyars, 1974. https://www.davidtinapple.com/illich/1973_energy_equity.html.
- Illich, Ivan. “Hospitality and Pain.” 1987. Paper presented in Chicago at the invitation of David Ramage, McCormick Theological Seminary. https://www.davidtinapple.com/illich/1987_hospitality_and_pain.PDF.
- Illich, Ivan. “Ivan Illich with Jerry Brown.” We the People. KPFA, March 22, 1996. Radio programme, with Carl Mitcham; transcript. https://www.davidtinapple.com/illich/1996_illich_and_brown.html.
- Illich, Ivan. Medical Nemesis: The Expropriation of Health. London: Calder & Boyars, 1975. Free copy is the Pantheon edition (1976). https://ratical.org/ratville/AoS/MedicalNemesis.pdf.
- Illich, Ivan. The Rivers North of the Future: The Testament of Ivan Illich. Edited by David Cayley. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2005. Borrowable at the Internet Archive. https://archive.org/details/riversnorthoffut0000illi.
- Illich, Ivan. “Silence Is a Commons.” 1983. Address to a forum on Science and Man. https://www.davidtinapple.com/illich/1983_silence_commons.html.
- Illich, Ivan. “Speed? What Speed?” 1996. Speeches for the “Speed” conference of the Netherlands Design Institute, Amsterdam, November 8, 1996. https://www.davidtinapple.com/illich/1996_illich_speed.pdf.
- Illich, Ivan. Tools for Conviviality. New York: Harper & Row, 1973. https://archive.org/details/illich-conviviality.
- Illich, Ivan. “Vernacular Values.” CoEvolution Quarterly, 1980. The essays that became most of Shadow Work (Marion Boyars, 1981). https://www.davidtinapple.com/illich/1980_vernacular_values.html.
- Moore, Debbie. “The Oakland Table: Conversations between Ivan Illich and Friends.” 2000. Notes on the talks, September to October 2000. https://www.davidtinapple.com/illich/2000_oakland_talks.PDF.