author
Francis Asbury Smith
1837–1915
Best known today for a spirited defense of Shakespeare, this American lawyer and Civil War veteran brought an advocate’s voice to literary debate. His surviving work has the tone of a courtroom brief, turning criticism into a lively argument for the Bard.
1 Audiobook
The Critics Versus Shakspere A Brief for the Defendant
by Francis Asbury Smith
About the author
Born on November 29, 1837, in East Salisbury, Massachusetts, Francis Asbury Smith was an American lawyer, jurist, and author. He studied at Wesleyan University and later served in the Civil War with the 3rd New York Infantry, experience that placed him firmly within the public life of his era.
Smith is remembered chiefly for The Critics Versus Shakspere: A Brief for the Defendant (1907). The book approaches Shakespeare almost like a legal case, gathering objections from detractors and answering them with the measured, argumentative style of a trained attorney.
He died on October 12, 1915. Although not a widely famous literary figure, he remains an interesting example of a professional man who carried his legal habits of mind into literary criticism, leaving behind a book that still catches the attention of Shakespeare readers and curious browsers in digital libraries.