W. Bert (Walter Bertram) Foster

Walter Bertram Foster was an American writer born in Providence, Rhode Island, on November 3, 1869, and he died on April 26, 1929. He published under the name W. Bert Foster and worked in several popular forms of commercial fiction, including dime novels, boys’ and girls’ series books, and adventure stories.

He is especially associated with the Stratemeyer Syndicate, the influential book-packaging operation behind many well-known juvenile series. Sources credit him with writing early Ruth Fielding books under the pseudonym Alice B. Emerson, and he is also linked with series such as Clint Webb, Ralph of the Railroad, Campfire Girls, and Radio Girls.

Foster also wrote science-fiction and adventure titles of his own, including The Eve of War and The Lost Expedition. Though he is not a household name today, his career shows how much of early popular fiction was shaped by fast, versatile professional writers working behind the scenes.