Paul Morphy experts, help please

I've been reading up on Paul Morphy and looking at his old games.  In one of the books it says his first major challenge was against Löwenthal.

In the book it gives the specific dates as May 5th (2 games) and a further game on May 25th 1849.

If I look the matches up, the general date for these matches is 1850 (no month given). Was there an issue with the date historically? What is the actual date?

hhHello

Here is a link that show all the games of Paul Morphy . . .

The first that has a year was 1848 . . . There are 51 more without dates before . . .

Hope this helps . . .

https://www.chess.com/games/search?p1=paul-morphy&sort=8&page=5

you can sort  half a dozen ways, even by the oldest when he was 11 . . .

Here are the known facts (in pgn format, created by a friend of mine only to be known as CKR):

[Event "Lowenthal vs 12 Year Old"]
[Site "New Orleans, USA"]
[Date "1850.05.22"]
[Round ""]
[White "Morphy, Paul C"]
[Black "Lowenthal, Johann Jacob"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C42"]
[Opening "Petroff Defense"]
[Variation "Cozio-Lasker Attack"]
[Source1 "Shibut - Game 084"]
[Source2 "Maroczy - Game 006"]

1.e4
{ A short Morphy biography printed in the Brooklyn Eagle on 9/25/1858
states:
" ...; and on the 22nd and 25th of May 1850 (not yet 13 years old) he
encountered the celebrated Hungarian, Herr Lowenthal, the result being,
in some measure, no doubt, owing to Mr Lowenthal's underrating his
young antagonist - Morphy 2, Lowenthal 0, Drawn 1

Actually the score was Morphy 3 Lowenthal 0, it involves a) Paul not accepting
a win and 2) Lowenthal altered an ending claiming a draw for publication,
a detailed explanation is too long to relate here.-ckr

This game was published in the June 28, 1856 Clipper and the games
anatations are from that periodical.
Lawson p,28}
e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 d6 4.Nf3 Nxe4 5.Qe2 Qe7 6.d3 Nf6 7.Nc3 Be6 8.Bg5
h6 9.Bxf6 Qxf6 10.d4 c6 11.O-O-O d5 12.Ne5 Bb4 13.Nxd5
{ A feasible sacrifice of two minor pieces for a rook, two pawns and a gain
of several moves}
Bxd5 { The best move} 14.Ng6+ Qe6
15.Nxh8 Qxe2 16.Bxe2 Kf8 17.a3 Bd6 18.Bd3 Kg8 19.Nxf7 Kxf7 20.f3 b5 21.Be4
Nd7 22.Rde1 Nf6 23.Re2 Re8 24.Bxd5+ cxd5
{Was it preferable to take with the knight?}
25.Rxe8 Nxe8 26.g3
{ A clever disposition of pawns to annul the power of adverse knight.
Between superior players such minutiae generally decides the fate of day}
g5 27.Kd2 Ng7
28.Ra1
{ Master Paul, now and here after wields his rook with considerable tact.}
a5 29.Kd3
{ Honor to this industrious King!}
Ke6 30.a4 b4 31.c4
{ Philidorian-like}
Bc7 32.Re1+ Kd6 33.Re5 dxc4+ 34.Kxc4
Ne6 35.Rb5 Nf8 36.Rd5+ Ke6 37.Rc5 Kd6 38.d5 Kd7 39.Rc6 Bd6 40.Ra6 Ng6 41.
Rxa5 Ne5+ 42.Kb5 b3 43.Ra7+ Kd8 44.f4 gxf4 45.gxf4 Nd3 46.Kc4 Nxf4 47.Rh7
Be5 48.Rxh6 Bxb2 49.Kxb3 Bg7 50.Rh7 Be5 51.a5 Nxd5
{ There is not a good move for black; his game is irretrievable *}
52.Rh5 Bxh2 53.Rxd5+
Kc8 54.Rb5 Kc7 55.a6
{ * This is a fine specimen of chess skill and ingenuity, especially
in one so young, as it has been our lot to see for some time.

The game scores from Chess Assistant 8 and Goossen's file both show a
draw and that Morphy played 55. Kc4. However, scores at chessgames.com
Macon Shibut show a win and that Morphy played 55.a6 and black
resigned. The variation shows Lowenthal's version of the game.

( 55.Kc4 Kc6 56.Rh5 Bg1 57.Rh6+ Kc7 58.Kb5 Kb8)

An explanation of how this game is known to be a draw could be lengthy. Paul
had actually worked with Lowenthal on the selection of the his games to be
presented in Lowenthal's book, after which, Lowenthal sold to two publishers.
For the European publisher, Bohn, Lowenthal added many more Morphy games, including
his own version of this game as a draw and even claimed it to be accompanied by
notes of Ernest who recorded it in 1850. If he ever had an accompanying manuscript
it was not Ernest's which had been already published in at least 5 other publications
four years earlier. Since the European book had more Morphy games, it became
much more popular, was widely accepted as the best reference of Morphy's games
and had several reprintings. Lawson in chapter 3, attempts to right this issue.
} 1-0

[Event "Lowenthal vs 12 Year Old"]
[Site "New Orleans, USA"]
[Date "1850.05.25"]
[Round ""]
[White "Morphy, Paul C"]
[Black "Lowenthal, Johann Jacob"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B21"]
[Opening "Sicilian"]
[Variation "Grand Prix Attack"]
[Source1 "Shibut - Game 085"]
[Source2 "Maroczy - Game 007"]
[Source3 "Lawson - Game 06 - 1850.05.25"]

1.e4
{ In 1850, a month before he turned 13, Paul played the Hungarian master,
Johann Jacob Lowenthal and, while there has been some confusion about the
results, it's generally believed that Morphy won all three games. Some
believe one game was drawn.
From Bretano's Chess Monthly:
Paul, he says, was a little fellow and stood up to the table. Mr. Morphy
and his brother, Judge Morphy, the father of Paul, and Rousseau, were
lookers-on. Lowenthal was one of the most noted and scientific players in
the world, and a finished, courteous gentleman. He at first supposed that
the game would be a bagatelle, but Mr. Morphy told me that as he, Lowenthal,
got into the game and felt Paul's force, his startled look and upraised
brows after each move of Paul's was perfectly ludicrous or as Mr. Morphy in
his French vernacular expressed it, comique. - SBC Bio3}
c5 2.f4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.exd5 exd5 5.d4 Bg4 6.Be2 Bxf3 7.Bxf3 Nf6 8.O-O Be7 9.
Be3 cxd4 10.Bxd4 O-O 11.Nc3 Nc6 12.Bxf6 Bxf6 13.Nxd5 Bxb2 14.Rb1 Bd4+ 15.
Kh1 Rb8 16.c3 Bc5 17.f5 Qh4 18.g3 Qg5 19.f6 Ne5 20.fxg7 Rfd8 21.Be4 Qxg7
22.Qh5 Rd6 23.Bxh7+ Kf8 24.Be4 Rh6 25.Qf5 Qxg3 26.Rb2 Re8 27.Nf6 Re6 28.
Rg2 Qxg2+ 29.Bxg2 Rhxf6 30.Qxf6 Rxf6 31.Rxf6 Ng4 32.Rf5 b6 33.Bd5 Nh6 34.
Rf6 Kg7 35.Rc6 a5 36.Rc7 Kg6 37.Kg2 f6 38.Kf3 Nf5 39.Be4 Kg5 40.Bxf5 Kxf5
41.h4 Kg6 42.Rc6 Kh5 43.Kg3 f5 44.Rf6 f4+ 45.Kxf4 Bf2 46.Ke4 Bc5 47.Rf5+
Kxh4 48.Rxc5 bxc5 49.Kd5 1-0

Hello again . . .

At that link you can call up any of the games and then download the pgn . . .

And that is great . . .

Thanks.

I've got his data base with all his games (from the excellent Chess Studio App) but does that mean that the dates in my book when he played Löwenthal ( May 5th and May 25th 1849) are wrong?

I don't know what book you are using or anything about the Chess Studio App but Morphy, as stated above, played and beat JJ Lowenthal in one game on on May 22, 1850. The two met again on May 25, 1850 at which time Paul Morphy beat Lowenthal in two more games, the scores to which have survived. 

Like most historical fictions, Fullerty's book contains a lot of fabrications. 

Since these are known facts, I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it.

Edge wrote a book without Morphy's knowledge or approval. This was possibly one of the main reasons Morphy sent him packing in January 1859.   Edge managed to get everything concerning this matter wrong, but he started with a lot of misinformation and confusion, some of which I'll explain below.

Lowenthal arrived in New Orleans on May 18, 1850. The first game was played on May 22; Morphy won. The second game was played on May 25; Morphy won. In a letter to the Napoleon Marache who edited the chess column in the "New York Clipper" in 1856, Paul's uncle Ernest had written (erroneously): "The first game was drawn, and the two others gloriously won by Master Paul." Ernest included one game which he claimed was the only one recorded. Willard Fiske published a second game in the "Chess Monthly" in 1859 (dictated to him by Morphy himself). In his letter to the "Clipper," Ernest included the one game, a Petroff Defense won by Morphy. This game later appeared in Lowenthal's "Morphy's Games of Chess" altered the show a draw. Confronted with the discrepancy, Lowenthal didn't deny he had lost but wrote, "Players of the first order lose a game now and then to Rook players" hinting that Morphy, the boy, was a rook player. see: Rook Players )  It gets seedier, but in conclusion the matter was settled by  Charles A. Maurian who wrote: "[Lowenthal wrote]'I do not remember whether we played in all two or three games; one was drawn, the other or others I lost.'  They played three games, as stated by D. W. Fiske, on the authority of Paul Morphy himself in the presence of Mr. Rousseau, Mr. Ernest Morphy and a large number of the amateurs of New Orleans. The facts are undisputed."

So we have two published games won by Morphy. What of the third?

Later Maurian added, "Fortunately, I can say something about this third and unpublished game which has its importance.  I have it from Morphy himself, and, although I am not aware that it was ever in print, I have often mentioned it in conversation with chess friends. Morphy, when spoken to about this game and asked why it had never been published, replied to the effect that it was simply unworthy of publication as Lowenthal had made an oversight at an early stage of the game, by which he suffered such heavy loss that he at once resigned. And eyewitnesses to the game, here supplemented Morphy’s statement by adding that, as soon as the oversight was committed, the youthful player chivalrously insisted upon the master’s retracting his move, whereupon Lowenthal smiled at the child’s naïveté of his adversary
but declined the offer."

Fullerton says May of 1849; Edge says Autumn of 1849... they don't corroborate each other and both are wrong.  Also, Edge wasn't Morphy's manager.  He pushed himself on Morphy who just seemed to let it ride as a matter of convenience. Sometimes he's referred to as Morphy's secretary, probably a closer description.

For the record, I have nothing against Fred Edge and in fact enjoy his writing style which Willard Fiske, a very staid, academic personality, referred to as "gossipy."  I think that which he wrote that he himself witnessed is probably fairly accurate, if noticeably biased,  but his second-hand stories aren't to be taken as gospel.  His book wasn't particularly well received, at least not as he had seemed to hope (Edge made his living as a journalist) and his time with Morphy was an investment.  

I hope this helps.

Why not doing some research in a first hand historical document: the 552 pages book on Paul Morphy games, wrote by J. Lowenthal himself?

LOWETHAL, J. - Morphy’s Games Of Chess. London : George Bell and Sons, 1898

https://archive.org/details/morphysgamesches00lowe

Thanks for the info batgirl.  Edge may not have been legally termed a 'manager', but he set up all Morphys matches in Europe. The young and somewhat naive Morphy was not capable of such an adventure which was had across the Atlantic!   Morphy may not have called Edge a manager, but manage he did. And we all know what Edge himself felt he was to Morphy.   

Lacking any direct evidence dating from the actual time of the games, we can only approximate the date. For example, early Romans dated the establishment of the republic to 510 BC but by the time of the Caesars it was thought that it was 509. Today historians believe it to have been two or three years later, due to the inaccuracy of the Roman calendar. So in the case of Morphy's games where there conflicting sources, none of them closer than 10 years after the events, we can only say for "in 1849 or 1850". You may if you wish make a closer examination of the sources to decide which you find the most reliable, but we will likely never know for certain. This is the case for many historical events and the dates you see in many history textbooks are simply that which the bulk of serious historians believe most likely.

I just found a newspaper clipping from 1858 discussing the previous Morphy years.  It sates,

"In May 1850, Lowenthal, the distinguished Hungarian - which whome Morphy's recent match in London has been contested - passed through New Orleans.  On the 22d and 25th of that month, he played with Paul, at that time not 13 years of age, in the presence of Mr Rousseau, Mr E Morphy, and a large number of amateurs.  The first game was a draw; the second and third were won by the invisible young Philidor"

Fascinating.

The discussions of who said what to whom, when, don't really settle the question.  We have two differing scores of the game, one submitted for publication by Ernest Morphy in 1856, the other submitted by J. Lowenthal in 1860, the latter allegedly (according to Lowenthal) based on a manuscript from Ernest Morphy, since neither Lowenthal  nor Morphy had kept score.  A priori, one cannot assume that the manuscript Lowenthal obtained from Ernest Morphy had the same score as the score submitted by Morphy in 1856.  Did somebody deliberately modify the score before  submitting it, or did somebody make an honest mistake, confusing some marginal note with the move actually made?  A priori, one cannot tell, although normally, the latter explanation easier to cite, as it doesn't involve impugning someone's character.  Who was more likely to do deliberate modification or to make an honest mistake, Morphy's experienced opponent or Morphy's doting uncle?  A priori, one cannot tell, although, by the way, the doting uncle is also the source of the apocryphal anecdote about Morphy learning the rules of the game by watching games between his family members.  Disputes about game scores can, in general, only be resolved by reference to primary sources, i.e. an original game score.