MATA HARI (orig. Margaretha Geertruida Zelle), 1876-1917. Autograph letter signed ("Marguerite Zelle McLeod") to Mr. Petitpied, Paris, 20 August 1916. 8 pages, 4to, fine. In French. [With:] Photograph of Mata Hari posing in full dancer's costume.

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MATA HARI (orig. Margaretha Geertruida Zelle), 1876-1917. Autograph letter signed ("Marguerite Zelle McLeod") to Mr. Petitpied, Paris, 20 August 1916. 8 pages, 4to, fine. In French. [With:] Photograph of Mata Hari posing in full dancer's costume.

A WAR-TIME LETTER OF MATA HARI. Zelle assumed her stage name in 1905 and launched a successful career as an exotic dancer in Paris; her abundant lovers included many military officers. Here, she playfully chides the Consul for not writing, chiding him for "receiving me briskly" one day. She is pleased to have her military "friends" nearby, but "unfortunately they have been at the front since the first day of the war...When they are on leave I attend them as best I can, as a woman...I...look after them, and the thirty thousand things which an officer needs but cannot procure himself. And also the letters...with the words of love as never I would dare to say them--and I know that during the long nights I am in their thoughts, as they are in mine..." She chats about her pleasure in Paris: "one is impressed and smiles without knowing why..." She is "seriously considering returning to live here, but I don't dare speak of it any further to the Baron C [Cappelen, one of her lovers] because "I know that I would cause him much grief and so I wait." A year later, the French government accused Mata Hari of spying for Germany; she was arrested and executed by a firing squad.

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