Mata Hari: Courtesan and Spy

New York: Blue Ribbon Books, 1930. Reissue. Hard Cover. Very Good/No Jacket. 9x6x1. Boards lightly rubbed, ink name on front endpaper. 1930 Hard Cover. xi, 312 pp. Photoplay edition with stills from film starring Greta Garbo. "'I am a woman who enjoys herself very much; sometimes I lose, sometimes I win.' - Mata Hari. Mata Hari was the stage name of Margaretha Zelle, a Dutch-born exotic dancer, courtesan, and convicted spy, whose life was risque enough to require no embellishment. Major Thomas Coulson's classic biography starts with Hari's early life in Amsterdam and her marriage which produced two children but ended in divorce. Hari remade herself, she joined a circus in Paris and performed as a horse rider. When funds were low she turned to modeling for an artist and exotic dancing. She invented colorful stories of her origins, posing as a Javanese princess of Hindu Birth, who was learned in sacred dancing since her childhood. As a neutral Dutch woman during World War One, Hari charmed her way easily across France, Spain, and Britain. She was accused of seducing valuable military secrets from the many bedazzled men she met on her adventures. Her death may have been tragic, but Mata Hari was uncompromising in her life and loves. Mata Hari will always be a mystery that needs to be solved. Thomas Coulson's biography however helps us put together the pieces of one of the most intriguing and glamorous lives of the 20th century.