William Shakespeare is an outdoor bronze sculpture of William Shakespeare by John Quincy Adams Ward, located in Central Park in Manhattan, New York. The statue was created in 1870 and unveiled in Central Park in 1872. Four thousand dollars towards the funding of the statue was raised at a benefit performance of Julius Caesar on November 24, 1864, performed by the sons of Junius Brutus Booth (Junius Brutus Booth, Jr., Edwin Booth, and John Wilkes Booth) at the Winter Garden Theater.

Shakespeare was enormously prolific. In his relatively short career he authored 13 comedies, 13 historical dramas, 6 tragedies, 4 tragic comedies and 154 sonnets. Many of his plays have become classics of the stage, and his poems are revered for their mastery of language and verse. Thus this modestly educated man of the Elizabethan age left an indelible mark on the English language and Western culture.