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

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.(21 September 1887)
A Literary Adventurer: Lew Vanderpoole and the George Sand Manuscripts
''New York Sun''

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."(30 August 1894)
Lew Vanderpoole Arrested in London
''Columbia Republican'' It appears he was then known as "C.L. Vanderpoel" or "Charles L. Vanderpool" of the town of Kinderhook.(17 October 1887)
Personal
''Albany Times'' ("Lew Vanderpoole, whose recent literary forgeries have made considerable newspaper talk, was formerly from Kinderhook, 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.")(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.")(24 September 1887)
A former Hudsonian in trouble
''Hudson Daily Evening Register'' This indeed appears to be the same person. He married Rosa Vosburgh of Kinderhook in 1881.(5 October 1881)
Married
''Chatham Courier'' 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."(30 March 1894)
Sanford Free Again
''Evening World'' In 1890, he was reported to be connected with the Troy ''Times''.(17 April 1890)
Personal
''Columbia Republican''

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.Johanningsmeier, Charles A
Fiction and the American Literary Marketplace
p. 86 (1997)Mott, Frank Luther
A History of American Magazines, Volume 4
p. 481 (1957)(24 September 1887)
Disclosure and Disgrace. Vanderpoole, the Literary Imposter
'' The Journalist''Drew, Bernard A
Literary Afterlife: The Posthumous Continuations of 325 Authors’ Fictional Characters
pp. 56-57 (2010)Smith, F.P. (15 November 1888)
"Princess Nourmahal" (letter to the editor)
''The Nation'' 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. Vanderpoole denied that the work was a forgery(17 December 1887)
Lew Vanderpoole's Case
''Daily Graphic'' 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.(19 October 1887)
Lew Vanderpoole's Case
''Philmont Sentinel'' But ''Normahal'' book was still published in 1888 as the claimed work of Sand.(11 November 1888)
A Literary Fraud
''Buffalo Courier''

Interview with King Ludwig

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.Kratzer, Hans (21 October 2017)
Der Schwindel des Journalisten, dem Ludwig II. scheinbar sein Herz öffnete
''Süddeutsche Zeitung'' (in German)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.) Vanderpoole even appears as an important character in the German musical "Ludwig²" (2005).(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''.)
gudrunkauck.de (in German, play cast list shows Vanderpoole as character), Retrieved 5 December 2018

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."

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.Anonyms and Pseudonyms
''Library Journal'' (August 1887), p. 305

''Lippincott's'' published the novel ''The Red Mountain Mines'', which was attributed to Vanderpoole himself, in its September 1887 issue.(13 August 1887)
Notes
''The Critic''

Vanderpoole was arrested in London in 1894, after attempting to borrow 1,000 pounds from Charles Russell, the son of the Lord Chief Justice.(19 August 1894)
Events in the Old World
''New York Sun'', p. 1, col. 2

Publishing company

From 1890 to 1892, 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 Primrose 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,(November 1890)
The Magnet of Death (Brief review)
''The Nassau Literary Magazine'' "Seemingly" (1890) by Caroline Washburn Rockwood and Vanderpoole,(July 1890)
News and Notes
p. 163 and "A Saratoga Romance" by Rockwood.(19 July 1890)
Just published
''The Critic''

Bibliography

Roger, Luc-Henri, ''Les impostures littéraires de Lew Vanderpoole: George Sand et Louis II de Bavière'', BoD, 2022 (ISBN 9782322409150)

References

External links

Online Books Page
for Lew Vanderpoole

The Red Mountain Mines
(1887)

Princess Nourmahal
(1888) (Attributed to George Sand as translated by Vanderpoole)

The Lilies of Florence
(1887) (book of stories attributed to Sand by Vanderpoole, published by George Munro)

"In Vintage Time"
a "posthumous sketch" which Vanderpoole attributed to Sand, first published in the '' New York Star'' (as reprinted in the ''Los Angeles Daily Herald'', November 25, 1886)

"The Wreath of Lilies"
another alleged posthumous sketch by Sand (as reprinted in the ''Frostburg Mining Journal'', May 7, 1887)

"Oblivion"
another alleged Sand piece (as reprinted in the ''Frostburg Mining Journal'', May 14, 1887)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vanderpoole, Lew
1855 births
19th-century American novelists
American book publishers (people)
People from Columbia County, New York
Forgers
Year of death missing