diff --git a/supervisor/medusa/asyncore_25.py b/supervisor/medusa/asyncore_25.py
index 1c578310a..d3efdf7a5 100644
--- a/supervisor/medusa/asyncore_25.py
+++ b/supervisor/medusa/asyncore_25.py
@@ -358,8 +358,16 @@ def recv(self, buffer_size):
 
     def close(self):
         self.del_channel()
-        self.socket.shutdown(socket.SHUT_RDWR)
-        self.socket.close()
+
+        try:
+            self.socket.shutdown(socket.SHUT_RDWR)
+        except socket.error:
+            # must swallow exception from already-closed socket
+            # (at least with Python 3.11.7 on macOS 14.2.1)
+            pass
+
+        # does not raise if called on already-closed socket
+        self.socket.close()  
 
     # cheap inheritance, used to pass all other attribute
     # references to the underlying socket object.
diff --git a/supervisor/tests/fixtures/issue-1596.conf b/supervisor/tests/fixtures/issue-1596.conf
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..750214bbe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/supervisor/tests/fixtures/issue-1596.conf
@@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
+[supervisord]
+loglevel=info                ; log level; default info; others: debug,warn,trace
+logfile=/tmp/issue-1596.log  ; main log file; default $CWD/supervisord.log
+pidfile=/tmp/issue-1596.pid  ; supervisord pidfile; default supervisord.pid
+nodaemon=true                ; start in foreground if true; default false
+identifier=from_config_file
+
+[rpcinterface:supervisor]
+supervisor.rpcinterface_factory = supervisor.rpcinterface:make_main_rpcinterface
+
+[unix_http_server]
+file=/tmp/issue-1596.sock    ; the path to the socket file
diff --git a/supervisor/tests/test_end_to_end.py b/supervisor/tests/test_end_to_end.py
index bc7c47421..25b71d2a2 100644
--- a/supervisor/tests/test_end_to_end.py
+++ b/supervisor/tests/test_end_to_end.py
@@ -426,3 +426,32 @@ def test_pull_request_1578_echo_supervisord_conf(self):
         echo_supervisord_conf = pexpect.spawn(sys.executable, args, encoding='utf-8')
         self.addCleanup(echo_supervisord_conf.kill, signal.SIGKILL)
         echo_supervisord_conf.expect_exact('Sample supervisor config file')
+
+    def test_issue_1596_asyncore_close_does_not_crash(self):
+        """If the socket is already closed when socket.shutdown(socket.SHUT_RDWR)
+        is called in the close() method of an asyncore dispatcher, an exception
+        will be raised (at least with Python 3.11.7 on macOS 14.2.1).  If it is
+        not caught in that method, supervisord will crash."""
+        filename = resource_filename(__package__, 'fixtures/issue-1596.conf')
+        args = ['-m', 'supervisor.supervisord', '-c', filename]
+        supervisord = pexpect.spawn(sys.executable, args, encoding='utf-8')
+        self.addCleanup(supervisord.kill, signal.SIGINT)
+        supervisord.expect_exact('supervisord started with pid')
+
+        from supervisor.compat import xmlrpclib
+        from supervisor.xmlrpc import SupervisorTransport
+
+        socket_url = 'unix:///tmp/issue-1596.sock'
+        dummy_url = 'http://transport.ignores.host/RPC2'
+
+        # supervisord will crash after close() if it has the bug
+        t1 = SupervisorTransport('', '', socket_url)
+        s1 = xmlrpclib.ServerProxy(dummy_url, t1)
+        s1.system.listMethods()
+        t1.close()
+
+        # this call will only succeed if supervisord did not crash
+        t2 = SupervisorTransport('', '', socket_url)
+        s2 = xmlrpclib.ServerProxy(dummy_url, t2)
+        s2.system.listMethods()
+        t2.close()