No Regrets - Carolyn Burke [145]
I have tried, whenever possible, to reconstruct Piaf’s contemporaries’ sense of her career by drawing on documents available at the Département des Arts du Spectacle of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, the Bibliothèque Marguerite Durand, the Bibliothèque Historique de la Ville de Paris, the Bernay Office de Tourisme Archive, the Hugues Vassal Archive, and the Mazillier/Berrot Archive. Popular magazines from the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s also provided a sense of the changing contexts for individual songs and song styles, their meaning to Piaf’s audience, and their role in the development of the myth of the little sparrow as the voice of France.
I was also fortunate to be able to flesh out or confirm my findings in interviews with a number of Piaf’s contemporaries, including collaborators, co-performers, and intimates such as Georges Moustaki, Micheline Dax, and Charles Dumont, whose generosity and recall of precise detail added immeasurably to the task I set myself—to tell Piaf’s story from her perspective, one that mingled the rose with the noir in the unlikely tale of the spirited girl from the Paris slums who became one of the greatest voices of the twentieth century.
The following is a selected bibliography of the works that informed my research or appear in the notes.
EDITH PIAF MEMOIRS
Piaf, Edith. Ma vie: Texte recueilli par Jean Noli. Paris: Union Générale d’Editions, 1964. Trans. Margaret Crosland, My Life. London: Peter Owen, 1990.
———. Au bal de la chance. Paris: L’Archipel, 2003. Trans. Peter Trewartha, The Wheel of Fortune. London: Peter Owen, 1965.
PUBLISHED CORRESPONDENCE
Piaf, Edith, and Marcel Cerdan. Moi pour toi: Lettres d’amour. Paris: Cherche Midi, 2002.
Springer, Anne-Marie. Amoureuse et rebelle: Histoires d’amour et lettres inédites de Arletty, Edith Piaf, Albertine Sarrazin. Paris: Textuel, 2008.
BIOGRAPHIES AND STUDIES OF EDITH PIAF
Berteaut, Simone. Piaf: A Biography. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.
Bonel, Marc, and Danielle Bonel. Edith Piaf: Le Temps d’une vie. Paris: De Fallois, 1993.
Bonini, Emmanuel. Piaf: La Vérité. Paris: Pygmalion, 2008.
Bret, David. Piaf: A Passionate Life. London: Robson Books, 1998.
Brierre, Jean-Dominique. Edith Piaf: Sans amour on n’est rien du tout. Paris: Hors Collection, 2003.
Cartier, Jacqueline, and Hugues Vassal. Edith et Thérèse: La Sainte et la pécheresse. Paris: A. Carrière, 1999.
Costaz, Gilles. Edith Piaf: Une Femme faite cri. Paris: Seghers, 1988.
Crosland, Margaret. Piaf. New York: Fromm, 1987.
Cuesta, Stan. Edith Piaf. Paris: Librio Musique, 1999.
Duclos, Pierre, and Georges Martin. Piaf. Paris: Seuil, 1993.
Gassion, Denise. Piaf, ma soeur. Paris: Guy Authier, 1977.
Grimault, Dominique, and Patrick Mahé. Piaf Cerdan: Un Hymne à l’amour 1946–1949. Paris: Robert Laffont, 1984.
Lange, Monique. Piaf. Trans. Richard S. Woodward. New York: Seaver, 1981.
Larue, André. Edith Piaf: L’Amour toujours. Paris: Editions Carrère/Michel Lafon, 1983.
Laurent, William. Edith Piaf. Paris: Loufrani, 1980.
Le Breton, Auguste. La Môme Piaf. Paris: Hachette, 1980.
Lévy, François. Passion Edith Piaf. Paris: Textuel, 2003.
Lorcey, Jacques, and Joëlle Monserrat. Piaf et la chanson. Paris: Séguier, 2007.
Maillet, Maurice. Edith Piaf inconnue. Paris: Euro-Images, 1970.
Marchois, Bernard. Edith Piaf: Opinions publiques. Paris: TF1, 1995.
———. Piaf: Emportée par la foule. Paris: Vade Retro, 1996.
Noli, Jean. Edith. Paris: Stock, 1973.
———. Piaf sécrète. Paris: L’Archipel, 1993.
Richer, Ginou. Mon amie Edith Piaf. Avignon: L’Instantané, 2004.
Routier, Marcelle. Piaf l’inoubliable. Paris: Renaudot, 1990.
Témoignages sur Edith Piaf et chansons de Piaf. Paris: Métropolitaines, 1984.
Vassal, Hugues. Piaf mon amour. Villeurbanne: J.-L. Lesfargues, 1982.
———. Dans les pas d’Edith Piaf. Paris: Les Trois Oranges, 2002.
BIOGRAPHIES AND AUTOBIOGRAPHIES OF OTHERS
Arnaud, Claude. Jean Cocteau. Paris: Gallimard, 2003.
Aznavour, Charles. Le Temps des avants. Paris: Flammarion, 2003.
Billy, Madame. La