author
Appleton Morgan
1845–1928
A New York lawyer with a strong literary streak, he wrote on everything from contracts and evidence to Shakespeare and family history. His work moves easily between the courtroom, the library, and the long-running debate over who really wrote the plays.
1 Audiobook
The Shakespearean Myth: William Shakespeare and Circumstantial Evidence
by Appleton Morgan
About the author
James Appleton Morgan was an American lawyer and writer born in 1845 and died in 1928. Records and library listings connect him with legal texts such as A Treatise on the Law of Contracts, The Principles of the Law of Evidence, and The Law of Literature, showing how firmly he was rooted in nineteenth-century legal scholarship.
He was also deeply involved in Shakespeare studies. Sources describe him as a founder and president of the Shakespeare Society of New York, and his name appears as editor and contributor on Shakespeariana, one of the early American periodicals devoted to Shakespeare. He is also remembered for The Shakespearean Myth, a book that took part in the authorship debates that fascinated many readers of his era.
Morgan's bibliography suggests an unusually wide range of interests. Alongside law and literary criticism, he wrote A History of the Family of Morgan, from the Year 1089 to Present Times, adding genealogy and historical research to his list of pursuits. The result is a body of work that feels both scholarly and curious, shaped by someone who clearly liked following an argument wherever it led.