Research Catalog

Title

Agent Josephine : American beauty, French hero, British spy / Damien Lewis.

Author

Lewis, Damien

Publication

• New York : PublicAffairs, 2022.
• ©2022

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xxvi, 466 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color); 25 cm

Summary

Singer. Actress. Beauty. Spy. During WWII, Josephine Baker, the world's richest and most glamorous entertainer, was an Allied spy in occupied France. Prior to World War II, Josephine Baker was a music-hall diva renowned for her singing and dancing, her beauty and sexuality; she was the highest-paid female performer in Europe. When the Nazis seized her adopted city, Paris, she was banned from the stage, along with all "negroes and Jews." Yet instead of returning to America, she vowed to stay and to fight the Nazi evil. Overnight, she went from performer to Resistance spy. In Agent Josephine, bestselling author Damien Lewis uncovers this little-known history of the famous singer's life. During the war years, as a member of the French Nurse paratroopers--a cover for her spying work-- Baker participated in numerous clandestine activities and emerged as a formidable spy. In turn, she was a hero of the three countries in whose name she served--the US, France, and Britain. Drawing on a plethora of new historical material and rigorous research, including previously undisclosed letters and journals, Lewis upends the conventional story of Josephine Baker, explaining why she fully deserves her unique place in the French Panthéon. --

Uniform Title

Flame of resistance

Alternative Title

Flame of resistance

Subjects

• France
• African American women dancers
• Spies
• Women spies
• United States
• War > Underground movements
• Gender identity
• Women
• Biographies
• History
• 1939-1945
• World War > (1939-1945)
• German Occupation of France > (France : > 1940-1945)
• Secret service
• African Americans
• Baker, Josephine, 1906-1975
• France > History > German occupation, 1940-1945
• World War, 1939-1945 > Underground movements > France
• World War, 1939-1945 > Women > France > Biography
• World War, 1939-1945 > France > African Americans > Biography
• World War, 1939-1945 > Secret service > France
• African American women dancers > France > Biography
• Spies > France > Biography
• Women spies > France > Biography

Genre/Form

• Biographies.
• History.

Note

• "Originally published in hardcover [as The flame of resistance] in Great Britain in 2022 by Quercus Editions Ltd"--Title page verso.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 399-452) and index.

Contents

A traitor unmasked -- An honourable spy -- From Paris with love -- A most sensational woman -- The darkness descends -- It can't always be caviar -- The enemy at the gates -- The iron resistance -- Stardom, her cloak and her dagger -- The black angel -- Invisible ink and secret steamships -- On the Gestapo hitlist -- Abandon all hope -- Unbreakable -- The twelve apostles -- Dances with death -- Operation Josephine B -- Operation Underworld -- Captured, imprisoned -- The grim reaper calls -- Lighting the torch -- Die another day -- Into the heat and dust -- Liberation day -- A song for Buchenwald -- Epilogue.

Call Number

Sc E 23-321

ISBN

• 9781541700666
• 154170066X

LCCN

2022934998

OCLC

1334421903

Author

Lewis, Damien, author.

Title

Agent Josephine : American beauty, French hero, British spy / Damien Lewis.

Publisher

New York : PublicAffairs, 2022.

Copyright Date

©2022

Edition

First US edition.

Type of Content

text

still image

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Creator/Contributor Characteristics

Journalists

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 399-452) and index.

Local Note

Schomburg copy with dust jacket.

Chronological Term

1939-1945

Research Call Number

Sc E 23-321

*MGYB (Baker) 22-4644

JFE 23-2257