Alice
Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from Wish List failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy Now for $27.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Marguerite Gavin
About this listen
The collected memoirs of a 1913 San Francisco sex worker, their effect on society at the time, and where they fit in today’s world.
In 1913, the San Francisco Bulletin published a serialized, ghostwritten memoir of a prostitute who went by Alice Smith. A Voice from the Underworld detailed Alice’s humble Midwestern upbringing and her struggle to find aboveboard work and candidly related the harrowing events she endured after entering “the life”.
While prostitute narratives had been published before, never had they been as frank in their discussion of the underworld, including topics such as abortion, police corruption, and the unwritten laws of the brothel. Throughout the series, Alice strongly criticized the society that failed her and so many other women, but, just as acutely, she longed to be welcomed back from the margins. The response to Alice’s story was unprecedented: 4,000 letters poured into the Bulletin, many of which were written by other prostitutes ready to share their own stories; and it inspired what may have been the first sex-worker-rights protest in modern history.
An introduction contextualizes A Voice from the Underworld amid Progressive Era sensationalistic journalism and shifting ideas of gender roles and reveals themes in Alice’s story that extend to issues facing sex workers today.
©2016 Ivy Anderson and Devon Angus (P)2021 Blackstone Publishing