Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy

 

Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Hero, British Spy by Damien Lewis (2022) 496 pages

The title sounded fascinating and there is a local St. Louis angle, since Josephine Baker was born here. Before I worked here at the library I attended a virtual author talk organized by one of the area book stores, which further heightened my interest. Mr. Lewis shared that there is a film adaptation in the works with Janelle Monae expressing interest in playing Josephine Baker. I really hope this project is greenlit and completed.

The author explains in his introduction that British espionage files are kept classified with no set time period when they will be released to the public, so there are gaps in the details he can present in the history here. There are two male secret agents who worked with Josephine either from afar or in person, who are described as inspiration for Ian Fleming's James Bond. One of those, Jacques Abtey, a French Resistance agent, had a very close relationship with Josephine. A major source used by Lewis is a memoir written by Abtey, so this spy who used multiple aliases throughout his career sometimes seems to take center stage at the expense of showing Josephine's accomplishments. Josephine spends over a year, in the year before America entered WWII, dealing with abdominal infections in a Casablanca clinic. This period is covered through multiple chapters. Josephine's clinic room becomes a meeting place for the sharing of intelligence between Free French, British, American, and North African Arabic and Berber agents, a place that the Axis agents don't dare attack or bug. Her room becomes the important thing, but she is sick and unable to actively engage in gathering intelligence. This is just to indicate that large portions of the story put her in a passive role. She didn't share details of her war years later in her life, so the author is forced to leave out many specifics. Still there are gems of facts that really capture the imagination. She used her singing and dancing performances as cover for moving intelligence for the Allied powers, or she used a Red Cross nurse position in the Free French military to do the same. She also was a trained pilot and as a superstar was able to move amongst powerful people in Europe and North Africa. She showed a deep conviction for fighting against Nazi hate and American segregation.