page_title: Lew Vanderpoole
section_title: Biography
hierarchical_section_title: Lew Vanderpoole / Biography
caption_attribution_description: English: Cover page of novel published in 1888, "Princess Nourmahal" American writer Lew Vanderpoole claimed that this was a translation of an unpublished French manuscript by George Sand, who he claimed was a relation. This was exposed as a hoax in September 1887, yet the novel was still published and attributed to Sand in 1888.
context_page_description: Lew Vanderpoole was an American writer and publisher, best known for a series of forgeries he produced in the 1880s.
context_section_description: 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.
  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."  It appears he was then known as "C.L. Vanderpoel" or "Charles L. Vanderpool" of the town of Kinderhook.  This indeed appears to be the same person.  He married Rosa Vosburgh of Kinderhook in 1881.  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."  In 1890, he was reported to be connected with the Troy Times.
caption: Title page of Princess Nourmahal, which Vanderpoole claimed was written by George Sand.
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