Twain's Fugitive Friend in Florence

Robert D. Pepper

Palo Alto, CA

In 1892, when Mark Twain first lived in Florence, did he make friends with a man who was a notorious fugitive from American justice? The daughter of that man claimed that Twain was on good terms with her parents in that time and place. But she herself was too young to have any memory of Twain, and she does not claim that the famous author knew her father's true identity.

The daughter, an only child, was born in England in or about the year 1890. In an unpublished document headed "Theodora's Family History" (written no earlier than the 1920s and perhaps much later), she reveals that her father, whose real name was William Riley Foster, had assumed an alias--John Fermain Ward. His wife, nee Loula Belote, became Mrs. Louise Ward, and their daughter, an only child, was Dorothy Ward in her childhood and adolescence. "Theodora" seems to have been a later invention.

According to Dorothy/Theodora, hers had been a very hard birth; and for several years thereafter her mother was an invalid. The family traveled from England to Switzerland to Italy, looking for a benign climate. "In Florence," wrote the daughter in later years,

"Mark Twain" called frequently on my parents, & is said to have taught me to walk. "You love little girls very dearly, Sam," said my father. "Yes & big ones just as well," answered Mr. Clemens smiling at mother. [Punctuation as in original]

The man Twain allegedly knew had been hunted by the police of two continents since 1888. Bachelor son of a wealthy merchant on the New York Produce Exchange, in the 80s William Foster himself was doing well as a businessman and living luxuriously. But at the end of September 1888 he was charged with having perpetrated a colossal fraud, by means of forged financial documents. "Forger Foster" read one headline--one of many in New York City dailies between September 29 and October 1.

In that short span of time, before Foster could be arrested and brought to trial, he slipped away and disappeared. Cooperating in his flight from justice was an attractive young woman, so much younger than Foster himself that she was thought to be his niece. All that was really known about her at the time was that she had been living with Foster and that she was called Lulu. Two headlines in Joseph Pulitzer's New York World read, "Foster and the Girl Lulu" and "Is Foster Lulu's Father?"

Lulu (that is, Loula Belote) was really Foster's mistress; but, as noted, a few years later she became his wife--if their English marriage was in fact legal. As Mr. and Mrs. Ward they stayed together, eluding a relentless police search, for a full nine years. Then in October 1897 Foster was caught in Paris; but it took another four months to get him extradited to New York. On February 15, 1898, page 14 of the World carried a story with five illustrations and the heading, "After Ten Years Exile William R. Foster Returns a Prisoner." But the wily Foster had not yet come to the end of his rope. On June 14 that same paper printed a follow-up (on page 5), with three illustrations and a heading that included a conspicuous typographical error: "Porger Foster is Once More a Fugitive from the Police." This time Foster disappeared permanently. As "Theodora" notes, he even separated from his wife and daughter, who never saw him again.

All this must have been very interesting indeed to Mark Twain--if, of course, he had actually been acquainted with the Foster-Wards in Florence. The accuracy of Theodora's story is anybody's guess.

Omnibus Note:

For Twain’s first sojourn in Florence, I have consulted Chapter 65 of The Autobiography of Mark Twain, ed. Charles Neider (New York: Harper and Row, 1959; rptd. 1990 by Harper-Collins as a Harper Perennial paperback).

“Theodora’s Family History” consists of six numbered pages, handwritten in ink, totaling some 2500 words. At the bottom of the last page is written “To be continued”; but if there was a continuation, I have not seen it. As noted, the comments about Twain occur on page 5.

I obtained a copy of this document from Dr. Kevin O’Brien of St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. He had found it in a Church of England retirement home where Dorothy/Theodora lived (as a lay person) toward the end of her life.

How Dr. O’Brien and I became interested in “Louise Ward” (Mrs. William R. Foster) and her daughter Dorothy is too long a story to tell here. Suffice it to say that we had a mutual interest in a wealthy American author/socialite who wrote (in England) under the name “Irene Osgood.” Her maiden name was Nannie Irene Belote, and she was the sister of Loula Belote, who later called herself Louise Ward. For Irene Osgood and her first husband, Charles Cleveland Osgood, see Who Was Who in America, Vol. 1 (1897-1942).

Aside from “Theodora’s Family History,” the saga of William Foster must be pieced together from stories in New York daily newspapers of the 1880s and 90s. It can be most conveniently traced (s.n. “Foster”) in the published index to the New York Times and the microfilmed index to the New York Tribune (1873-1906). But for the liveliest accounts, the curious researcher must go to competing journals published by the brothers Pulitzer: Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World and Albert Pulitzer’s New York Morning Journal.

For illustrations in the World, see Sept. 28, 1888 (p. 1); October 25, 1897 (p. 9); February 15, 1898 (p. 14); and June 14, 1898 (p. 5). On that last date, when Foster had just fled New York a second time, there was also an illustration in the New York Herald (p. 14). Albert Pulitzer’s ultra-sensational New York Morning Journal could not match the World in illustrations, but Albert outdid his brother in the concoction of eye-catching headlines. See, e.g., these from 1888 (all on the front page): “Forger Foster” (Sept. 28); “Where Has Lulu Gone?

(Sept. 29); “Lulu is Found: Foster Isn’t” (Oct. 1); and “‘Never Trust Him, Lulu’” (Oct. 5).

Speaking of headlines, the two from the New York World cited in the text – both 1888 – can be found on Sept. 29 (p. 1) and Oct. 1 (p. 8).