Flirting with Danger: The Mysterious Life of Marguerite Harrison, Socialite Spy
By Janet Wallach
In Flirting with Danger, renowned biographer Janet Wallach reveals the life of an unlikely spy and a hidden heroine of the twentieth century. Born a privileged child of American’s Gilded Age, Marguerite Harrison rebelled against her mother to marry the man she loved and sought out a job as a society reporter when she was tragically widowed at thirty-seven. Then, in a truly unexpected turn, when the United States entered World War I, she applied to Military Intelligence to work as a spy. For ten years between the wars, Harrison undertook dangerous assignments abroad and sent uncannily perceptive reports back home.
Marguerite Harrison arrived in Berlin immediately after the Armistice and befriended the enemy, dining with aristocrats and dancing with socialists. Late into the night she wrote her handlers urging the West to relieve Germany of the burden of war reparations, warning of the growing power of the German Right. Sent next to Moscow, she stole into Russia to observe the results of the Bolshevik Revolution. Although she carried press credentials, she was caught and imprisoned as an American spy. Told that her only way out was to spy for the Cheka, she became a double agent, aiming to convince the Russian rulers she was working for them while striving to stay loyal to her country.
In Germany and Russia, Harrison saw the future – a second war with Germany, a cold war with the Soviets. Over a decade, her mysterious adventures also took her to the Far East, Baghdad, and on a harrowing trek across the mountains of Iran to make the legendary documentary film, Grass. The author, Janet Wallach, captures Harrison’s daring, glamour, and unsung heroism in this stranger-than-fiction history of a woman drawn to the impossible.
Janet Wallach is the author of ten books, including Desert Queen: The Extraordinary Life of Gertrude Bell, which has been translated into twelve languages and was a New York Times Notable Book.