Paris | It's a Writing Life

A Love Affair with Radio [Part 3] – ABSIE

My mother’s nearly ten-year career – from the late 1930s through most of the 1940s – had a strong information / radio theme (see Part 1 – A Lifetime Passion and Part 2 – The Roots of the VOA of this series). One of those pieces was the American Broadcasting Station in Europe (ABSIE), which was set up as a station by the U.S. Office of War Information (OWI) in collaboration with the BBC, to counter Nazi propaganda, and to have a unique American voice in Europe. The seven ABSIE Country Desks broadcast eight hours of programming each day from London, targeting their respective country-specific audiences. Launched in the months leading up to D-Day, it ended fifteen months later – just ninety days after victory in Europe.

As a member of the OWI French Desk, mom began working to help launch ABSIE soon after she arrived in London in early 1944 – as they helped prepare for the imminent invasion of Europe. ABSIE was to be America’s big propaganda ‘gun,’ run as a complement to the Voice of America (VOA), but having its own mission to support the military goals of the Allied invasion of France. The ABSIE copy was specifically designed to raise doubt in the German psyche as to the sense of continuing an un-winnable war. ABSIE was also to be the authoritative voice that would inform people in occupied areas on how to be prepared for the coming invasion. Continue reading “A Love Affair with Radio [Part 3] – ABSIE”

Notre Dame and Dinner Near the Sorbonne

After our brief rest at the hotel, Bill departed for the evening EuroCloud Summit dinner, so Tina and I had a night in front of us. We decided there was enough light in the day to visit Notre Dame first and then head over to the Sorbonne to enjoy a delicious French dinner. We wanted to make the most of the evening after our Big Red Bus tour.

Tina and I remembered visiting Notre-Dame de Paris in 1973 with Mom. This was before the restoration effort had begun (1991), and I remember well the grayish-blackish tint that covered much of the front edifice. At the time, the grime of the centuries somewhat hid the grandeur of the amazing entrances, carvings and gargoyles but the totality of the entire church still was impressive, to say the least.

Notre Dame de Paris (2011) – Source: Family photos

During our mid-March 2011 trip, the entire presentation was vastly different. The Western façade of Notre Dame Cathedral was clean with a beautiful gray incandescence. All the carvings were visible and bright. To remember the contrast made you feel the carved entrances could now be appreciated to their fullest. We felt lucky to know the difference.

The surrounding square sets off the church magnificently, giving it space to balance the immensity of the structure. Construction of the cathedral began in 1160 and was largely complete by 1260, although substantial updates have occurred over the years. It is considered to be one of the finest examples of French Gothic architecture, with innovative use of the rib vault and flying buttresses. Continue reading “Notre Dame and Dinner Near the Sorbonne”

Paris in Spring: The Big Red Bus Tour

During the same trip to Europe that Bill, Tina and I took back in mid-March 2011, we also spent two days in Paris, in addition to our time in London.

Our first morning in Paris brought warm weather and sunny skies. Bill headed off early to meet up with business colleagues at a conference where he was scheduled to make a speech. Tina and I decided it was a great day to take the Big Red Bus Tour. It’s a hop-on, hop-off affair, featuring nine first rate tourist destination stops in Paris: the Tour Eiffel, Champs du Mars, Musee du Louvre, Notre Dame, Musee D’Orsay, Place de l’Opera, Champs-Elysees – Etoile, the Grand Palais and the Trocadero. There is no way anyone could cover all these sites in one day, so we cherry picked our targeted destinations.

Marianne and her sister Tina in the Jardin de Tuileries, Paris – Source: Family photos

We settled in on the top row of the bus. I was prepared to snap shots of important Paris destinations that were material to my research about Mom’s war years. Tina shared with me a picture practice advocated by her husband, Brian: have a person you know in the photo, even if the person is tiny in relation to the shot. It’s a lot more interesting. I actually agree, but this was going to be difficult when Tina and I started “suggesting” what we should do for the photo. The conversation could get out of hand.

“Stand there, no there!” Continue reading “Paris in Spring: The Big Red Bus Tour”

Lifelong Friendships

My mother created many lifelong friendships during her time working for the OWI in New York, London and Paris. Three of them, among others, were her colleague Margaret McElderry, the Cornet family in Paris and Katherine Harding in London.

Margaret McElderry

A central character in the book, Elsa Sparks, is based on Margaret McElderry, a well-known children’s book editor and publisher. Marg, (with a hard “g”), as my mother called her, was a regular presence at our house. For many, many years, she would arrive with gifts of her newly published books for the five of us children. My sisters, who are a bit older than I am, received early copies of The Borrowers when Harcourt, Brace published the volume in the United States in 1953. All those books are still in our various library shelves.

Mom and Marg would meet for lunch or dinner a few times each year and when possible, enjoy a weekend Continue reading “Lifelong Friendships”

The Journey of Researching and Writing The French Desk

I’ve been mulling over writing this story for a long time. I had many letters from 1944-1945 my mother had written home, so I knew I could use those as the outline of the story. But some of the material was personal, like her love life, and did I want to splash all that over a book?

In the end, I decided I did because you can’t have a good novel about straight war work, even propaganda war work. There have to be a few problems and additional characters along the way. A few things, including all the names of the characters in the story, except for the people who worked at OWI, were changed.

I then asked myself if I thought my mother would want me to write this story. With her death in 2006, the opportunity to talk with her about the idea of a book was long gone. But, as we were going through their possessions after they had both passed away, we found my mother’s yearly date calendars. I looked through them casually, ready to discard them, until I caught an entry in the 1990 calendar. Continue reading “The Journey of Researching and Writing The French Desk”