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Many of us are familiar with the names of the talented, artistic, adventurous and fun-loving American expatriates who graced the salons and watering holes of Paris and the beaches and mansions of the South of France in that glittering period between the two world wars. Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald. Ernest Hemingway. Gertrude and Leo Stein are some of the names that come to mind.

But you may not have heard of Florence Gould, an American status seeker who used her beauty, sexual wiles and her marriage to American multi-millionaire Frank Jay Gould to enter le Tout Francais, the French elite.

With numerous residences, her own salons that catered to everyone from Picasso to the Prince of Wales, a hotel and casino empire that catered to the wealthiest Europeans, Florence Gould also took scores of lovers, collaborated shamelessly with the Nazi occupiers in acquiring stolen art and in hiding their assets, barely escaping charges of treason after the war.

“A Dangerous Woman: American Beauty, Noted Philanthropist -- Nazi Collaborator” by Susan Ronald has just been published by St. Martin’s Press.

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