author
Marion Polk Angellotti
1887–1975
A California-born writer of historical adventure, she filled early 20th-century magazines and novels with swordplay, wartime drama, and larger-than-life heroes. Her fiction ranged from medieval Italy to World War I, with one novel, The Firefly of France, adapted for the screen.
1 Audiobook
The Firefly of France
by Marion Polk Angellotti
About the author
Born in California in 1887, Marion Polk Angellotti became known for lively historical fiction and adventure stories. She wrote for magazines including Adventure and created tales that often drew on the past, especially medieval Italy and military history.
Her best-known work includes The Firefly of France, a novel inspired by French flying ace Georges Guynemer, which was later made into a film. She also wrote several stories about the 14th-century soldier John Hawkwood, showing her talent for mixing careful historical settings with fast-moving popular storytelling.
During World War I, she served as a volunteer canteen worker with the American Red Cross in France and later with the Army of Occupation in Germany. That firsthand experience with war helps explain the vivid sense of action and duty that runs through much of her work.