Translations:CP 02902/16/en
- ↑ Since the beginning of the First World War, when mobilization in mid summer had interrupted society life, Mme Edwards had remained a very active hostess, her connections with prominent government figures as much as with the advanced musical and literary circles made her salon a politico-artistic hotspot. According to her biography by Arthur Gold and Robert Fizdale (Misia: The Life of Misia Sert, New York, Vintage Books, 1992, p. 162-212), she had organized a network of ambulances from the beginning of the conflict, several leading couturiers whose premises had been closed having agreed to place their delivery wagons and motor vehicles at her disposal for use as ambulances, and she herself went to the front to bring back the wounded along with Sert and Cocteau (for whom the couturier Poiré had designed costumes that were appropriate in the context of the war). During the aerial bombardments of Paris, she went outdoors or onto her balcony with her guests to watch the spectacle, having an aesthetic and exalted vision of the unprecedented events. Her soirées brought together a number of artists, including Cocteau, Satie, Gide, Jacques-Émile Blanche, or the musicians and artists of the Ballets Russe over whose destiny she watched over.