Benjamin Appel, or Benjamin Apple was an American writer. He was one of the writers of the period specializing in detective and crime fiction, sometimes from a radical perspective.

Appel grew up in the Hell's Kitchen area of New York City. It was this experience that he drew upon when writing his novels.

Before he began earning a living from his writing, he was a bank clerk, farmer, lumberjack, factory-hand and a housing inspector for New York City.