by Amy Stewart
The version of Langres in wartime that I present in this novel is based on letters and diaries kept by American soldiers stationed there, plus a collection of photographs and correspondence pertaining to the pigeon school held at the National Archives. It is very much the viewpoint of one highly opinionated American—Norma. I’m sure Norma’s perspective is very different from that of the villagers who lived through those devastating years.
The pigeon service did not, to my knowledge, deploy any women overseas. There were Signal Corps women operating the switchboard in the nearby town of Chaumont. For more about them, I highly recommend Elizabeth Cobbs’s excellent book The Hello Girls. Also, the Signal Corps did not, as far as I know, ever consider discontinuing its messenger pigeon program, although all the problems with the program I described were real problems faced by military pigeon programs at the time. Norma’s opinions about her superiors, as well as her contempt for the “British method” and the “French method,” stem entirely from Norma’s own curmudgeonly personality and are not a reflection on the actual fine work done by those parties during the war.
Aggie’s story was inspired by a Washington Post article from February 10, 1918, “The German Spy and the Cake with the Hollow Center.” The real-life cake-shop spy lived in Québec, not Langres, but I couldn’t resist borrowing from those events for my story. Thanks to researcher Alix Barnaud for helping me with French pastries of the era, the realities of food shortages and rationing in France during the war, and translations.
The story of Mon Chou is very closely based on the true story of another pigeon, Cher Ami. Cher Ami actually flew a dozen critical missions, including a friendly fire incident much like the one I described. Unlike Mon Chou, Cher Ami was patched up, survived, and was awarded the French Croix de Guerre. Thanks to the wonders of taxidermy, both Cher Ami and his medal are still on display at the Smithsonian.
A few other notes: Forrest Pike refers to “Emma Gee,” which was slang for MG, or machine gun. Norma’s complaint to Forrest Pike about the fact that she doesn’t hold the rank of lieutenant reflects a real problem for women serving overseas at the time. They fought for “relative rank,” the idea that their positions should be assigned ranks equivalent to those given to enlisted men. They were unsuccessful in that effort: women who wore a uniform and served overseas were denied military benefits and honors when they returned home.
The concept of a filleul de guerre, or a wartime godson, is described in more detail in Canteening Overseas, 1917–1919, by Marian Baldwin. Please see the recommended reading list at the end of these notes for a partial list of the collections of women’s wartime letters and diaries I consulted while writing this book.
Fleurette did not, to my knowledge, tour Army camps performing with the real-life May Ward. There is, however, a real-life connection between the Kopp sisters and May Ward. If you’re new to the series, read the historical notes in Miss Kopp’s Midnight Confessions to find out more.
In fact, May Ward did perform at some Army camps, mostly in 1919, after soldiers returned from France but before they were released from active duty. My descriptions of the camps, the Hostess Houses, and the policing of girls’ behavior comes from photographs and newspapers of the era. Nancy K. Bristow’s Making Men Moral: Social Engineering During the Great War describes the work of the Committee on Protective Work for Girls and Maude Miner’s role in great detail. Maude Miner’s letter to Constance draws from that book, Miner’s own memoir, her published letters, and quotes of hers in newspaper articles of the era.
Fleurette’s and Bernice’s experiences in detention only scratch the surface of what happened to women during World War I and for decades after. Tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of women suspected of promiscuity or sexually transmitted diseases were locked up with no due process, sometimes for years, under a program called “The American Plan.” I recommend Scott W. Stern’s book The Trials of Nina McCall for more on this mostly forgotten travesty.
Oh, and about that parrot. Fleurette Kopp really did own a parrot named Laura, who was with her from childhood until well into her later years. Fleurette’s family tells stories about Fleurette working at her sewing machine while Laura sat on top of her cage and carried on conversations with her all day long. I’m happy to bring Laura into the story at last. Norma’s birdkeeping advice comes mostly from Bishop: The Bird Man’s Book, first published in 1886.
Constance, as I said previously, did some sort of intelligence work during the war, perhaps for a private company called the Sherman Service. I chose instead to put her to work for A. Bruce Bielaski, director of the Bureau of Investigation (later called the FBI). I had an ulterior motive: I wanted to introduce Constance to my great-grandfather, William E. Allen, who worked for Bruce Bielaski and then served as interim director of the Bureau for six months in 1919. One of the four daughters Mr. Allen refers to during his meeting with Constance is my grandmother.
Although there were not, to my knowledge, any women employed as agents for the Bureau during the war, Constance’s activities are based on real cases from the era. The case involving David Rogovin at the Curtiss North Elmwood plant in Buffalo happened as described, as did the explosion at the munitions plant in Syracuse. The raid on the “disreputable house” at the St. Regis is loosely based on a real raid that took place there that year. The Wilmington case is fictional, but is a composite of several real sabotage cases from the era.
The American Protective League was both a useful volunteer organization and a thorn in the side of the Bureau. Mr. Bielaski really did have to testify before Congress in December 1918 about the League’s activities, and then he resigned. For more on the League, please read Bill Mills’s The League: A True Story of Average Americans on the Hunt for WWI Spies.
Constance’s recipe for a chemical solution that would allow her to steam open envelopes comes from recently declassified CIA documents from World War I. Those documents also revealed some of the government’s techniques for developing secret ink. For more on that subject, I highly recommend Prisoners, Lovers, and Spies: The Story of Invisible Ink from Herodotus to al-Qaeda by Kristie Macrakis. Mr. Bielaski’s story about the German pigeon with holes in its feathers is based on a similar story told by American cryptologist Herbert Yardley.
Bessie’s efforts to help with the war—including the fundraiser in which children wrote letters, the librarians’ book drive for soldiers, the program to “adopt” French war orphans, and the process of collecting nutshells and fruit pits for gas masks—are all based on real events. Frankie Jr.’s and Lorraine’s letters to French children are quoted from actual letters American children wrote at the time. There really was a Tobacco Fund to raise money to send cigarettes and pipe tobacco to soldiers.
For more about the real-life Kopps, please visit my website at www.amystewart.com/bookclubs, where you’ll find photos, Q&As, and information about how we can chat about the books on Skype. And stay tuned for the next installment!
Women in World War I: Recommended Reading
Aldrich, Mildred. A Hilltop on the Marne: Civilian Letters from War-torn France. 1916. Reprint, London: Hesperus Press, 2014.
Baldwin, Maria T., and Margaret Wade Campbell Deland. Canteening Overseas, 1917–1919. New York: Macmillan, 1920.
Boylston, Helen Dore. “Sister”: The War Diary of a Nurse. New York: Washburn, 1927.
Crewdson, Dorothea. Dorothea’s War: A First World War Nurse Tells Her Story, edited by Richard Crewdson. London: Phoenix, 2014.
Dent, Olive, and R. M. Savage. A Volunteer Nurse on the Western Front. London: Virgin, 2014.
Foxwell, Elizabeth. In Their Own Words: American Women in World War I. Waverly, TN: Oconee Spirit Press, 2015.
Hunton, Addie W., and Kathryn M. Johnson. Two Colored Women in World War I France. 1920. Reprint, Bellevue, WA: Big Byte Books, 2015.
Janis, Elsie. The Big Show: My Six Months with the American Expeditionary Forces. New York: Cosmopolitan Book, 1919.
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��Brien, Alice M. Alice in France: The World War I Letters of Alice M. O’Brien, edited by Nancy O’Brien Wagner. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2017.
Saltonstall, Nora. “Out Here at the Front”: The World War I Letters of Nora Saltonstall, edited by Judith S. Graham. Boston: Northeastern University Press, 2004.
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About the Author
Amy Stewart is the New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Kopp Sisters series, which began with Girl Waits with Gun. Her six nonfiction books include The Drunken Botanist and Wicked Plants. She and her husband own a bookstore called Eureka Books. She lives in Portland, Oregon.
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