Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent

Code Name Pauline: Memoirs of a World War II Special Agent — page 3
xii EDITOR’S NOTE Toward the end of her life however she began to feel that her story might be inspiring to young people in difficult circum stances French journalist Hervé Larroque approached her in 1994 with the idea of writing her memoir and as their acquain tance progressed she felt she could trust him to handle her story properly He conducted multiple interviews some with Pearl alone and others including Pearl’s husband Henri Cornioley from December 1994 through June 1995 The transcript of those interviews was published in French by Éditions par exemple in December 1995 with the title Pauline one of Pearl’s wartime code names M Larroque appreciated what I had done with Pearl’s story in my book Women Heroes of World War II in which she is pro filed and agreed to have me edit the English translation of Pau line into a straight narrative with added introductory material to place the memoir within its historical context Because Pearl was adamant that her story not be altered I have taken great care to change as little of her own wording as possible In most instances M Larroque’s brief questions are simply incorporated into the text A large part of the edit ing process involved bringing together material on one sub ject that had been garnered from various interviews and was found in various sections of the manuscript What remains is Pearl’s story in her own choice of words and her own style of speaking Because Pearl’s husband Henri was present during some of the interviews there is specific material enlightening com ments by Henri humorous interchanges between him and Pearl that would be lost if converted into a narrative There are other sections where keeping the text in its original dialogue format provides more clarity A selection of these can be found in the appendix