Delia Salter Bacon

Born in Tallmadge, Ohio, in 1811, Delia Salter Bacon became known as an American teacher, lecturer, and writer. She published fiction early in her career and was part of a lively literary world, gaining attention for her intelligence, strong opinions, and dramatic speaking style.

She is most closely associated with the Shakespeare authorship question. Bacon argued that the plays usually credited to William Shakespeare were actually written by a group of statesmen and thinkers, with Francis Bacon as the central figure. She developed these ideas over many years and presented them in her major book, The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded.

Her theory was widely criticized, and the later years of her life were marked by financial trouble and declining health. Even so, she remains an important figure in literary history because she helped launch one of the most famous authorship debates in modern culture.