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Bibliographic Information
- Title
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A woman of no importance : the untold story of the American spy who helped win World War II
- Author
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Purnell, Sonia.
- Publisher:
- Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC,
- Pub date:
- [2019]
- Pages:
- 352 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates :
- ISBN:
- 9780735225299
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Item info:
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1 copy available in
Adult nonfiction shelves.
1 copy total in all locations.
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Holdings
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940.548641092 PUR
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1
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Adult non-fic hardcover
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Adult nonfiction shelves
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Enriched Content
A woman of no importance : the untold story of the American spy who helped win World War II
Purnell, Sonia.
Quick Links
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MARC Record
A woman of no importance : the untold story of the American spy who helped win World War II
Purnell, Sonia.
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Personal Author:
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Purnell, Sonia.
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Title:
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A woman of no importance : the untold story of the American spy who helped win World War II / Sonia Purnell.
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Physical description:
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352 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, map ; 24 cm
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Contents:
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The dream -- Cometh the hour -- My tart friends -- Good-bye to Dindy -- Twelve minutes, twelve men -- Honeycomb of spies -- Cruel mountain -- Agent most wanted -- Scores to settle -- Madonna of the mountains -- From the skies above -- The CIA years.
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Summary:
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"The never-before-told story of one woman's heroism that changed the course of the Second World War In 1942, the Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission: "She is the most dangerous of all Allied spies. We must find and destroy her." This spy was Virginia Hall, a young American woman--rejected from the foreign service because of her gender and her prosthetic leg--who talked her way into the spy organization dubbed Churchill's "ministry of ungentlemanly warfare," and, before the United States had even entered the war, became the first woman to deploy to occupied France. Virginia Hall was one of the greatest spies in American history, yet her story remains untold. Just as she did in Clementine, Sonia Purnell uncovers the captivating story of a powerful, influential, yet shockingly overlooked heroine of the Second World War. At a time when sending female secret agents into enemy territory was still strictly forbidden, Virginia Hall came to be known as the "Madonna of the Resistance," coordinating a network of spies to blow up bridges, report on German troop movements, arrange equipment drops for Resistance agents, and recruit and train guerilla fighters. Even as her face covered WANTED posters throughout Europe, Virginia refused order after order to evacuate. She finally escaped with her life in a grueling hike over the Pyrenees into Spain, her cover blown, and her associates all imprisoned or executed. But, adamant that she had "more lives to save," she dove back in as soon as she could, organizing forces to sabotage enemy lines and back up Allied forces landing on Normandy beaches. Told with Purnell's signature insight and novelistic panache, A Woman of No Importance is the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war"-- Provided by publisher.
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Summary:
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Virginia Hall-- rejected from the foreign service because of her gender and her prosthetic leg-- became the first woman to deploy to occupied France, before the United States had even entered the war. At a time when sending female secret agents into enemy territory was still strictly forbidden, Hall coordinated a network of spies to blow up bridges, report on German troop movements, arrange equipment drops for Resistance agents, and recruit and train guerrilla fighters. The Gestapo considered her the most dangerous of all Allied spies. Purness tells the breathtaking story of how one woman's fierce persistence helped win the war. -- adapted from jacket
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Personal subject:
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Goillot, Virginia, 1906-1982.
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Subject term:
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Women spies--United States--Biography.
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Subject term:
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Spies--United States--Biography.
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Subject term:
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Intelligence officers--United States--Biography.
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Subject term:
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World War, 1939-1945--Secret service--United States.
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Subject term:
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World War, 1939-1945--Underground movements--France.
