Mata Hari, the True Story

Howe, Russell Warren

ISBN 10: 0396087175 / ISBN 13: 9780396087175

Published by Dodd Mead, 1986

About this Item

292 pages. Startling new information about the world's most famous spy' based on privileged access to secret French Military investigation & trial papers. Jacket missing some at the top of the jacket. Jacket now in mylar cover. Includes numerous pictures illustrating her life. Mata Hari was executed by firing squad in France as a German spy on October 15, 1917. Records of the investigation and the closed trial were ordered sealed for one hundred years. Debate over the issue raged for decades. Was she, as her prosecutor proclaimed, "the greatest woman spy of the war"? Or was she simply shot to silence her, because the trial revealed corruption in high places in France? These and countless other theories, embroidered by a vast literature of mythology about the seductress-spy, have flourished ever since. Seller Inventory # 008732

Bibliographic Details

Title: Mata Hari, the True Story

Publisher: Dodd Mead

Publication Date: 1986

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: Good +

Edition: First Edition

About this title

Synopsis:

Through privileged access to the sealed, sixty-eight-year-old dossier containing the records of the secret trial of Mata Hari, the seductress-spy executed in France as a German spy, the author presents an intriguing account of the German and French intelligence services during World War I

From Publishers Weekly:

Margaretha Zelle, aka Mata Hari, was executed by the French in 1917 as a German spy. Since she was famous as an exotic dancer, news of the execution shocked Europe and the legend of this unfortunate woman has persisted. Howe, author of The Power Peddlers, etc., argues that she was guilty only of wanting to spy for the French, of hoping to pull off a financial coup and settle down with the man she loved. Her marriage at 18 to Capt. Rudolf MacLeod had taken her to Indonesia and when the marriage broke up and she returned to Europe, she turned to Hindu or Buddhist (she never knew the difference) "religious" dancing, which was in essence stripping. This led to life as a demimondaine, and her conquests included a German crown prince and the composer Massenet. Self-dramatizing, self-deceiving, superficial, she was easy prey to the French when a victim was needed. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.