Florence understood instinctively that beauty, as well as money, was power; and she had both in abundance.

Florence Gould was an intelligent, conniving, self-centered, savvy business woman, but most of all she was a survivor.  She survived the San Francisco earthquake and fire as a child, a major flood in France, World War I and World War II.  Her survival skills came into play again with her questionable connections with top officials of The Third Reich which was a contention with FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, after the war.  Hoover tried everything to get her convicted for aiding and abetting the enemy to no avail.  She was definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Her open marriage to a very wealthy and shrewd American multimillionaire, Frank Gould, gave her the opportunities she needed to become an independent wealthy woman in her own right by investing in real estate and art, though obtained under dubious conditions.  It’s known that many of her art purchases were bought from collections taken by the Nazis from French Jews.  Though rumors said she was an anti-Semite, Ronald supposes that Florence didn’t care one way or another.  She preferred to have fun rather than worry about “political rumblings”, and being the self-serving woman she was, she chose to help both sides when it suited her. Continue reading “#BookReview: A Dangerous Woman – The Life of Florence Gould by Susan Ronald @susanron @StMartinsPress” →