1. “Neglect taught Misia independence”: Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale, Misia, p. 26.

2. For the next few years: Ibid., p. 38.

3. “enthroned at his [Diaghilev’s] side”: Ibid., p. 4.

4. “[I] was drawn”: Ibid., pp. 197–198.

5. “I remained forever”: Morand, The Allure of Chanel, p. 65.

6. 300,000 gold francs: $769,000 in today’s money. Henry Gidel, Coco Chanel, p. 131.

7. “The woman who hasn’t”: Ibid.

8. Chanel was wearing: Axel Madsen, Chanel: A Woman of Her Own, p. 82.

9. 7,000 francs: Ibid.

10. In simple terms the cost: A 2010 Union Bank of Switzerland analysis of inflation.

11. Two German cavalry officers: Landesarchiv (LASH), Büro für Kriegstammrollien, SW 29 (Berlin, Germany) Military Government of Germany, Fragebogen, undated document. Schleswig-Holsteinisches (Schleswig, Germany) “Dincklage” file.

12. Each had fought: U.S. War Department, Histories of the German Army 1914–1918, p. 729.

13. “A people continually torn”: Shirer, Berlin Diary, p. xiii.

14. Theodor Momm’s wealthy family: The official name of the firm was Th. Momm & Co. Baumwoll-spinnerei und Weberei (Michael Foedrowitz’s e-mail to author, August 2008).

15. With the coming to power of Hitler: Militärregierung, U.S. Army Military Government files, DET, 1.370 circa 1946. Momm’s NSPD number given as: 4 428.309.

16. joined the military intelligence service: SSF doc. 814; Dincklage Army Major—biographic entry, Bundesarchiv Berlin.

17. Dincklage’s father: Landesarchiv Antrag “Request.” War Department Histories, 23565, Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1920. Memoire in Swiss archives.

18. Dincklage’s English-born mother: CHADAT 7NN2973.

19. The Dincklages shared: Christian Ingrao explores the Völkisch myth in Croire et détruire—les intellectuels dans la machine de guerre SS.

20. Years later: SS general Heinrich Himmler quoted in Robert G. L. Waite, Vanguard of Nazism, p. 29. Dincklage’s connection with the Free Corps is found in Marcel Haedrich, Coco Chanel, p. 137; Manfred Flügge, Amer Azur: Artistes et écrivains à Sanary, p. 61: “One heard from Sybille Bedford that [Dincklage] participated in the assassination of Rosa Luxemburg in 1919.” Manfred Flügge, interview in Paris by author, September 13, 2009.

21. According to French counterintelligence: SSF, Dec. 814.

22. But Spatz was certainly: MI6, Ledebur report, BNA.

23. Isabelle Fiemeyer described: Chanel experienced a moment of religious fervor in Venice while she prayed and mourned Boy Capel. There, she began a lifetime habit of collecting religious cards with prayers to Catholic saints: Saint Thérèse de l’Enfant-Jesus, Saint Agatha, the Madonna of the Oliviers, and a prayer card dedicated to “The Blessed Pierre Marie Louis Chanel (1803–1841)” of her family. She kept the cards in a small wallet along with a note written in her hand: “I am a Roman Catholic; in case of a serious accident or transportation to hospital, I request a Catholic priest come to me. If I die I request the blessing of the Catholic Church, signed Chanel, 31, rue Cambon, Paris” (author’s translation). When Chanel died in 1971, the wallet was found in her handbag along with photographs of her nephew, André Palasse and his two granddaughters. Isabelle Fiemeyer, Coco Chanel: un parfum de mystère, pp. 65–66.

24. Chanel biographer Pierre Galante: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 50.

25. The city had “forgotten the black years”: Ibid., p. 51.

26. “liberated from prejudices”: Ibid., p. 64.

27. “Chanel launches”: Ibid., p. 54.

28. “Women were no longer to exist”: Madsen, Chanel: A Woman of Her Own, p. 116.

29. In one of her maxims: Vaughan translation of Chanel’s citations, proverbs, and maxims found at Citations Chanel: http://www.citation-du-jour.fr/

30. “Chanel’s genius”: Gold and Fizdale, Misia, p. 230.

31. “An orphan denied a home”: Morand, L’Allure de Chanel, p. 32; my translation.

32. The swank flat: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 60.

33. “but the greatest concentration”: Pierre Assouline, Simenon: A Biography, p. 73.

34. Later, Chanel and her entourage: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 2.

35. “Love affairs between writers and artists”: Ibid., p. 62.

36. Chanel’s newfound friends: Wallach, Chanel: Her Style and Her Life, p. 42.

37. “You do not know dear”: Fiemeyer, Coco Chanel: Un parfum de mystère, p. 87; my translation.

38. “What would become of dreams”: Edmonde Charles-Roux, Chanel, p. 220.

39. She was generous and tactful: Ibid., p. 224. Today, the manuscripts are kept at Yermenonville, France, at the home of Gabrielle Palasse Labrunie.

40. Prince Félix chose Dmitri: On the night of December 16, 1916, two men, with the help of British secret agents, managed to poison Rasputin. They then clubbed him almost to death. But the “holy monk” would not die. They finished the deed with gunfire and threw his nearly dead body in the icy river Neva, where he died of hypothermia. Dmitri Pavlovich was later suspected of having shot the monk.

41. Rumors now spread: Gidel, Coco Chanel, p. 171.

42. “It was like a winning lottery ticket”: Madsen, Chanel: A Woman of Her Own, p. 135.

43. “I want you to meet”: Galante, Mademoiselle Chanel, p. 146.

44. “But if you want”: Ibid.

45. She would come to believe: Haedrich, Coco Chanel: Her Life, Her Secrets, p. 156.

46. an individual whose: APP BA 1990.