Lew Vanderpoole

Lew Vanderpoole (b. 1855 - ?) was an American writer and publisher, best known for a series of forgeries he produced in the 1880s.

Biography
Title page of Princess Nourmahal, which Vanderpoole claimed was written by George Sand.

Little is known about Vanderpoole's life outside of his literary misadventures. When the George Sand forgeries were exposed in September 1887, the New York Sun reported that Vanderpoole claimed to be 32 years old, and had a "somewhat Irish cast of features." He had slight stutter but was a "glib, plausible talker." He was reported to have been with the New York Tribune at one point, and then was "exchange editor" for the New York World, and was considered a "fairly good descriptive writer, and a man of some attainments." Due to poor health, he dropped out of newspaper work around 1884, and probably concocted his schemes after that due to his financial circumstances. When arrested in September 1887, he was living in Oyster Bay outside New York City.[1]

Papers in upstate New York reported, when Vanderpoole was otherwise in the news, that he had been a resident of Columbia County, New York and was "well known in Hudson by reason of his many bold adventures."[2] It appears he was then known as "C.L. Vanderpoel" or "Charles L. Vanderpool" of the town of Kinderhook.[3][4][5] This indeed appears to be the same person. He married Rosa Vosburgh of Kinderhook in 1881.[6] The New York World reported that the couple had three children, and divorced in 1894, whereupon his wife reportedly stated "I don't like my husband. I am tired of him, but I have been faithful to him with but two exceptions."[7] In 1890, he was reported to be connected with the Troy Times.[8]

George Sand forgeries

Vanderpoole claimed French writer George Sand (Amantine Lucile Dupin), who died in 1876, was his aunt or great-aunt. He was arrested on charges of forgery in September 1887, after selling a story called Princess Nourmahal to Cosmopolitan which he attributed to Sand.[9][10][11][12][13] When confronted with the fact that he could not produce the original manuscript of Nourmahal which he claimed to have translated, he confessed that he had a phenomenal memory and had translated it from memory. Yet, he appeared to be unfamiliar with French when questioned in that language. The New York Times review of Nourmahal rejected the idea that Sand could possibly be the author of the work.[1][12] Vanderpoole denied that the work was a forgery[14] Vanderpoole spent a few days in jail, but was released on the argument that the case needed to be brought in New York City, not Oyster Bay. Some in the press did not treat Vanderpoole's offense as so great, and hoped he would move on to simply write under his own name.[15] But Normahal book was still published in 1888 as the claimed work of Sand.[16]

Interview with King Ludwig
PDF of Ludwig article in Lippincott's.

In November 1886, an alleged interview that Vanderpoole did with King Ludwig II of Bavaria a few years prior was published in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine. The interview was published a few months after Ludwig's death, and has been frequently cited and relied upon by German writers. German scholars appear to have been unaware until 2017 of the other forgery charges that had been brought against Vanderpoole, and too willing to accept the "too good to be true" article with fascinating insights into Ludwig, including Ludwig's claimed adoration of Edgar Allan Poe.[17][18] Vanderpoole even appears as an important character in the German musical "Ludwig²" (2005).[19][20]

The New York Sun did report in September 1887 that the Ludwig article was "an extremely interesting interview" which Vanderpoole claimed to have gotten through alleged connections with French newspaper Le Figaro, with which he actually had no connection. The Sun reported that Vanderpoole "has told several publishers that he was on intimate terms with Victor Hugo, George Eliot, Gladstone, Boulanger, Zola, Thomas Carlyle, Rubenstein, Bismarck, Sara Bernhardt, Tennyson, Ruskin, and Thiers."[1]

Other events

Vanderpoole also passed off the novel Ruhainah (1886) by Rev. T.P. Hughes (pseudonym Evan Stanton) as his own work, among other items.[21]

Lippincott's published the novel The Red Mountain Mines, which was attributed to Vanderpoole himself, in its September 1887 issue.[22]

Vanderpoole was arrested in London in 1894, after attempting to borrow 1,000 pounds from Charles Russell, the son of the Lord Chief Justice.[23]

Publishing company

From 1890-92, Vanderpoole published a number of books as the "Lew Vanderpoole Publishing Co." Its published books (many if not all appear to be soft cover books) included "The Toltec Cup" (1890) and "The Primose Path of Dalliance" (1892) by Andrew Carpenter Wheeler; "Eteocles: a Tale of Antioch" (1890) by Jessie Agnes Andrews (an author claimed to be 13 years old), "The Magnet of Death" (1890) by Vanderpoole,[24] "Seemingly" (1890) by Caroline Washburn Rockwood and Vanderpoole,[25] and "A Saratoga Romance" by Rockwood.[26]

References
  1. (21 September 1887). A Literary Adventurer: Lew Vanderpoole and the George Sand Manuscripts, New York Sun
  2. (30 August 1894). Lew Vanderpoole Arrested in London, Columbia Republican
  3. (17 October 1887). Personal, Albany Times ("Lew Vanderpoole, whose recent literary forgeries have made considerable newspaper talk, was formerly from Kinderhood, where he was known as Charles L. Vanderpool, and was for a time bookkeeper for the Victor Mower company and a correspondent for Rough Notes.")
  4. (29 September 1887). Round About Town, Columbia Republican ("If "Lew Vanderpoole" is the same person known to the senior publisher of the Republican (to his sorrow) a few years since, as "C.L. Vanderpoel" he has developed wonderfully--in various ways--since that time. We hope he will come and see us when his fortune is made, as it seems likely that it will be now that he is getting so much gratuitous advertising.")
  5. (24 September 1887). A former Hudsonian in trouble, Hudson Daily Evening Register
  6. (5 October 1881). Married, Chatham Courier
  7. (30 March 1894). Sanford Free Again, Evening World
  8. (17 April 1890). Personal, Columbia Republican
  9. Johanningsmeier, Charles A. Fiction and the American Literary Marketplace, p. 86 (1997)
  10. Mott, Frank Luther. A History of American Magazines, Volume 4, p. 481 (1957)
  11. (24 September 1887). Disclosure and Disgrace. Vanderpoole, the Literary Imposter, The Journalist
  12. Drew, Bernard A. Literary Afterlife: The Posthumous Continuations of 325 Authors’ Fictional Characters, pp. 56-57 (2010)
  13. Smith, F.P. (15 November 1888). "Princess Nourmahal" (letter to the editor), The Nation
  14. (17 December 1887). Lew Vanderpoole's Case, Daily Graphic
  15. (19 October 1887). Lew Vanderpoole's Case, Philmont Sentinel
  16. (11 November 1888). A Literary Fraud, Buffalo Courier
  17. Kratzer, Hans (21 October 2017). Der Schwindel des Journalisten, dem Ludwig II. scheinbar sein Herz öffnete, Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German)
  18. Schweiggert, Alfons (24 October 2017). Und ist es nicht wahr, so wenigstens gut erfunden, Süddeutsche Zeitung (in German) (This letter to the editor, headlined, And if it's not true, its at least well-invented, followed the paper's October 21, 2017 article discussing Luc Roger's exposure of the Ludwig interview as a likely hoax. The letter writer, German biographer de:Alfons Schweiggert, wrote the book Edgar Allan Poe und König Ludwig II (2008), which relied on Vanderpoole's piece. He suggests that German writers (like himself) have used Vanderpoole's story because Ludwig's points were also confirmed by other witnesses, including his interest in Poe, but that Vanderpoole's report is such an unbelievable achievement of insight into Ludwig that Roger is likely right that it was a fraud.)
  19. (12 June 2018). Schon 1886 gab es Fake News, Allgäuer Zeitung (in German, title of article translates to There was already fake news in 1886.)
  20. Ludwig², gudrunkauck.de (in German, play cast list shows Vanderpoole as character), Retrieved 5 December 2018
  21. Anonyms and Pseudonyms, Library Journal (August 1887), p. 305
  22. (13 August 1887). Notes, The Critic
  23. (19 August 1894). Events in the Old World, New York Sun, p. 1, col. 2
  24. (November 1890). The Magnet of Death (Brief review), The Nassau Literary Magazine
  25. (July 1890). News and Notes, p. 163
  26. (19 July 1890). Just published, The Critic
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