Crossroads Marseilles, 1940

By Mary Jayne Gold

This is a very interesting book. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385156189
• ISBN13: 9780385156189
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Doubleday
• Length: 412 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Mary Jayne Gold and Varian Fry in Marseilles

First of all, you have to find this book. Once you have found it and read it, you cannot escape that feeling that only you and a few others know about this little nugget. Perhaps the search for this obscure book, published in 1980, enhances that feeling but I'm not so sure. Since this is autobiographic, Mary Jayne Gold is the main character but you know from the jacket cover that Varian Fry and his American Relief Center in Marseilles is the raison d'etre for this memoir. Let me digress a moment to take you on a short journey that led to my special find. It started when I read Jonathan Fenby's excellent new book "France on the Brink" in which he refers only in passing to Varian Fry, an American who was responsible for saving thousands of Jewish intellectuals while in Marseilles, France in 1940-41. Since I had never heard of Varian Fry it piqued my interest to say the least, especially since I am a former resident of Marseilles. Do we have another Schindler here? A library search was fruitless but the internet turned up Mary Jayne Gold's book. After reading Mary Jayne Gold's account of her involvement with Vivian Fry, I did a subsequent search and discovered that Andy Marino has just published a fine, well researched biography of this remarkable man, "A Quiet American".It took Mary Jayne Gold 40 years to write her account of that historic period in Marseille but it took the next writer, Andy Marino, 60 years! Why so long to recognize this man? In 1945, Varian Fry wrote his own account of that rescue in Marseilles but his book "Surrender On Demand" soon drifted into obscurity, meeting the same fate as Mary Jayne Gold's Memoir, now long out of print. This memoir, like the person who wrote it, remains an enigma. Who really was Mary Jayne Gold? What happened to her? Was she as strange and different as her biography? Mary Jayne Gold was a rather attractive young lady with a lot of money, who decided to stay on in France long after France had been overrun by the Germans. Despite the hardships of the war she decided to flee to the south of France and try to continue her carefree existence. It was a journey, like her life, without any particular mission, until two men came into her life. The first was a n'er do well hoodlum, recently escaped from the French Foreign Legion and the second was Varian Fry. The Scoundrel and the Saint. It all makes for fascinating reading because it is written by an amateur writer who could never have made up this bizarre chapter in one's life. She may have been flighty, maybe even flaky, but her heart was in the right place. Mary Jayne Gold's contribution to history is little more than a footnote but I do wish that Andy Marino had not given her such short shrift in his new book on this episode. All I can say after reading all this is that it should be a movie. If, after you've read, Mary Jayne Gold's account you wonder what happened to her, (and who wouldn't?), dr

Mary Jayne Gold and Varian Fry

First of all, you have to find this book. Once you have found it and read it, you cannot escape the feeling that only you and a few others know about this little nugget. Perhaps the search for this obscure book, published in 1980, enhances that feeling but I'm not so sure. Since this is autobiographic, Mary Jayne Gold is the main character but you know from the jacket cover that Varian Fry and his American Relief Center in Marseilles are the raisond'etre for this memoir.Let me digress a moment to take you on a short journey that led to my special find. It started with Jonathan Fenby's excellent new book "France on the Brink" in which he refers in passing to Varian Fry as an American pimpernel responsible for saving thousands of jewish intellectuals while in Marseilles, France in 1940-41. Even though a former resident of Marseilles, I had never heard of Varian Fry so it piqued my interest to say the least. Do we have another Schindler here? A library search proved fruitless but the internet turned up Mary Jayne Gold's memoir. After reading her book, a follow-up search revealed that Andy Marino has just published the first well- researched biography of this remarkable man, "A Quiet American."It took Mary Jayne Gold 40 years to write her account of that historic rescue operation in Marseilles but it took the next writer, Andy Marino, 60 years! Why so long to recognize this man? In 1945, Fry wrote his own account of that rescue mission but his book "Surrender on Demand", like Gold's later memoir, disappeared into obscurity and both are long out of print.Gold's memoir, like the person who wrote it, remains an enigma. Who really was Mary Jayne Gold? What happened to her? Was she as strange and different as her biography? Mary Jayne Gold was a rather attractive young lady with a lot of money, who decided to stay on in France long after the German invasion simply because she didn't want to go home. She fled to the south of France with French friends in a vain attempt to continue her carefree existence. It was a journey, like her life, without any particular mission, until two men came into her life. The first was a n'er do well hoodlum, recently escaped from the French Foreign Legion, and the second was Varian Fry. The Scoundrel and Saint. It all makes for fascinating reading because it is written by an amateur writer who could never have made up this bizarre chapter in one's life. Gold may have been flighty, maybe even flakey, but her heart was in the right place. Gold's contribution to history will be little more than a footnote but I do wish that Andy Marino had not given her such short shrift in his new book on this episode. She deserves better than that. All I can say after reading Gold's book is that it should be a movie. If, after you've read Gold's account, you wonder what happened to her (and who wouldn't?), drop me a line.