Louise Forsslund

Biography

The daughter of a Swedish-born Long Island innkeeper and storyteller who had panned for gold in California and gotten drunk with Mark Twain, Mary Louise Foster grew up listening to her father's stories, a number of which were turned into short stories and a number of well-received novels which were published under her nom de plume, Louise Forsslund, which was the original spelling of her father's surname before it was Anglicized to Foster. After her death, her novel "Old Lady No. 31" was made into a play by Rachel Crothers; it ran for 160 performances on Broadway in 1916-1917.