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The Poppy Lady: The Story of Madame Anna Guérin and the Remembrance Poppy
Madame Anna Guérin is the fascinating personality behind the title ‘The Poppy Lady’. Her idea of the ‘Inter-Allied Poppy Day’ gave work to women and children in the devastated areas of France, in addition to offering support for First World War veterans.
Born in 1878, she was an early feminist, becoming financially independent. During the First World War, and the immediate years after the Armistice, many people knew of Madame Guérin’s reputation as a selfless fundraiser for French and American charities. Her speeches inspired many people to make generous donations.
Having had her name lost in the mists of time, this is the first biography of Madame E. Guérin. The book follows her extraordinary story as ‘The Poppy Lady’, a woman born before her time, but confined to anonymity for too long.
Born in 1878, she was an early feminist, becoming financially independent. During the First World War, and the immediate years after the Armistice, many people knew of Madame Guérin’s reputation as a selfless fundraiser for French and American charities. Her speeches inspired many people to make generous donations.
Having had her name lost in the mists of time, this is the first biography of Madame E. Guérin. The book follows her extraordinary story as ‘The Poppy Lady’, a woman born before her time, but confined to anonymity for too long.
434 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 5, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 17, 2022
I’ve always been struck by John McCrae’s poem ‘In Flanders Fields’ and we always wore poppies in November so I was eager to read this one.
Anna Guerin’s early years and life as a celebrated lecturer was a recitation of facts drawn from newspaper articles, reviews, and public records. During and after the war, her lecture circuit was a campaign for funds in America to support Frances. Poppies were already a popular symbol in the States for the Allies, and tag days with a poppy began almost immediately after the war ended.
Anna further encouraged Gold Star mothers to adopt the poppy as their symbol for their own tag sale Poppy Day fundraising. This evolved into finally getting to her big idea—in the middle of the book—of having Americans solicit donations and wear poppies on Decoration Day. Her ultimate goal was for all Allied countries to use poppies made by widows and orphans or veterans as an emblem for remembering those lost, and at the same time creating a method of raising funds. I wished there was more insight into Anna’s personal drive and the impact the money raised by this campaign had.
The statements and newspaper quotes and data weren’t put into an interesting narrative. We didn’t need every adjective ever used in print to describe her lectures or how much money she earned at every single stop. By the time we got to outlining each stop in each Allied country to promote the cause, I lost interest. And only at the very end was there mention of another woman who had mistakenly been given full credit for the poppy campaign.
Thoroughly researched if dry at times. I received an arc from net galley
Anna Guerin’s early years and life as a celebrated lecturer was a recitation of facts drawn from newspaper articles, reviews, and public records. During and after the war, her lecture circuit was a campaign for funds in America to support Frances. Poppies were already a popular symbol in the States for the Allies, and tag days with a poppy began almost immediately after the war ended.
Anna further encouraged Gold Star mothers to adopt the poppy as their symbol for their own tag sale Poppy Day fundraising. This evolved into finally getting to her big idea—in the middle of the book—of having Americans solicit donations and wear poppies on Decoration Day. Her ultimate goal was for all Allied countries to use poppies made by widows and orphans or veterans as an emblem for remembering those lost, and at the same time creating a method of raising funds. I wished there was more insight into Anna’s personal drive and the impact the money raised by this campaign had.
The statements and newspaper quotes and data weren’t put into an interesting narrative. We didn’t need every adjective ever used in print to describe her lectures or how much money she earned at every single stop. By the time we got to outlining each stop in each Allied country to promote the cause, I lost interest. And only at the very end was there mention of another woman who had mistakenly been given full credit for the poppy campaign.
Thoroughly researched if dry at times. I received an arc from net galley
September 29, 2023
The brilliant red poppy worn by millions around the world on days of remembrance had to ‘begin’ somewhere and for those who stop to wonder where The Poppy Lady: The Story of Madame Anna Guéin and the Remembrance Poppy supplies a far more than adequate, and very interesting, explanation.
Canadian soldier/doctor/poet John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields,” another iconic remembrance piece, written in 1915, undoubtedly focused attention on the red wildflower that bloomed freely in the broken, war-ravaged battlefields of Europe both during the Great War (1914-1918) and still blooms unbidden and peppers farm fields and city sidewalk crevasses with bits of crimson.
Many who delve into First World War history have heard of Britain’s Field Marshal Douglas Haig and his establishment of the Earl Haig Fund in 1921, a charity that raised money, in part through poppy sales, for the benefit of war veterans and their families. Others are familiar with the story of Miss Moina Michael, the American professor who realized, also in 1921, that those donors who left a few coins at a booth and departed with the artificial poppies decorating it could be the beginning of fundraising for America’s World War I veterans. Miss Michael was soon called “The Poppy Lady.”
There was, however, another woman who was called “The Poppy Lady”: Madame Anna Guérin, a French teacher/professional lecturer who traveled internationally during the war years and made her audiences aware of the hardships suffered by those living (especially the children) and fighting in Europe. Her fund-raising Poppy Days included replica lapel poppies in 1919. Ms. Johnson introduces readers to France’s Poppy Lady, a woman largely forgotten as Haig and Michael were remembered for their association with remembrance flowers and fund-raising.
The book is comprehensive; Johnson has impressively made ample use of thousands of contemporary newspaper articles and hundreds of pieces of ephemera while putting together this first-ever biography of Anna Guérin. A generous number of period and family photographs augments the text. While there are no footnotes/endnotes, there is a list of research materials and an index.
While a reader may find the day-by-day touring schedules and descriptions a bit tedious (as well Madame Guérin herself may have found them to be!) this book brings the forgotten Guérin and her mission to light with obvious admiration and an understanding of how ‘modern’ a woman Guérin was in both her vision and her ability to bring it to fruition. This book invites one to open at any page and enjoy the incidents there described; a consecutive page readthrough isn’t the only informative option.
In the end, the reader wonders how it is that Anna Guérin disappeared from history books and acknowledges that she well deserves to be recalled with Haig and Michael when we pause to contemplate that scarlet symbol of remembrance—the poppy.
Canadian soldier/doctor/poet John McCrae’s “In Flanders Fields,” another iconic remembrance piece, written in 1915, undoubtedly focused attention on the red wildflower that bloomed freely in the broken, war-ravaged battlefields of Europe both during the Great War (1914-1918) and still blooms unbidden and peppers farm fields and city sidewalk crevasses with bits of crimson.
Many who delve into First World War history have heard of Britain’s Field Marshal Douglas Haig and his establishment of the Earl Haig Fund in 1921, a charity that raised money, in part through poppy sales, for the benefit of war veterans and their families. Others are familiar with the story of Miss Moina Michael, the American professor who realized, also in 1921, that those donors who left a few coins at a booth and departed with the artificial poppies decorating it could be the beginning of fundraising for America’s World War I veterans. Miss Michael was soon called “The Poppy Lady.”
There was, however, another woman who was called “The Poppy Lady”: Madame Anna Guérin, a French teacher/professional lecturer who traveled internationally during the war years and made her audiences aware of the hardships suffered by those living (especially the children) and fighting in Europe. Her fund-raising Poppy Days included replica lapel poppies in 1919. Ms. Johnson introduces readers to France’s Poppy Lady, a woman largely forgotten as Haig and Michael were remembered for their association with remembrance flowers and fund-raising.
The book is comprehensive; Johnson has impressively made ample use of thousands of contemporary newspaper articles and hundreds of pieces of ephemera while putting together this first-ever biography of Anna Guérin. A generous number of period and family photographs augments the text. While there are no footnotes/endnotes, there is a list of research materials and an index.
While a reader may find the day-by-day touring schedules and descriptions a bit tedious (as well Madame Guérin herself may have found them to be!) this book brings the forgotten Guérin and her mission to light with obvious admiration and an understanding of how ‘modern’ a woman Guérin was in both her vision and her ability to bring it to fruition. This book invites one to open at any page and enjoy the incidents there described; a consecutive page readthrough isn’t the only informative option.
In the end, the reader wonders how it is that Anna Guérin disappeared from history books and acknowledges that she well deserves to be recalled with Haig and Michael when we pause to contemplate that scarlet symbol of remembrance—the poppy.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews