Elizabeth Wells Gallup

Born in 1846, Elizabeth Wells Gallup was an American author, lecturer, and one of the most visible supporters of the Baconian theory—the claim that Francis Bacon, not William Shakespeare, wrote the plays usually attributed to Shakespeare. She became especially known for arguing that hidden ciphers in the texts revealed Bacon's authorship.

Gallup wrote works including Concerning the Bi-Literal Cypher of Francis Bacon Discovered in His Works and other books that explored these cipher-based claims. Her writing reached readers in the United States and abroad, and she became a recognizable name within literary authorship debates.

Today, she is remembered less for a view accepted by mainstream scholarship than for her place in the history of literary controversy. Her career offers a glimpse into a time when code-breaking, authorship puzzles, and Shakespearean mystery captured the public imagination.