Soiled Doves: Prostitution in the Early West (Women of the West) [Paperback]

Anne Seagraves (Author)

Book Description

Series: Women of the West | Publication Date: February 1994

Softcover book is an history of prostitution in the early American West. Illustrated.

Product Details

• Paperback: 175 pages
• Publisher: Wesanne Pubns; First Edition edition (February 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 096190884X
• ISBN-13: 978-0961908843
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (37 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #309,909 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #84 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Women's Studies > History

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An interesting view of prostitution in the Wild West, June 21, 2000

By 

M. Desoer (Bay Area, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Soiled Doves: Prostitution in the Early West (Women of the West) (Paperback)

This book provides a glimpse into a fairly unusual topic: prositution in the "Wild West" of the 1800's. It covers the gamut, from the elite sophisticated brothels with the top-notch "girls," to the hovels near the mining towns and the Chinese slave-girls which catered to men near Chinatown of San Francisco. It is chock-full of photographs, excerpts from old newspaper articles and other interesting side-bars.

This is not a dense, academic study, but an easy-to-read overview. At times it is a tad disorganized, but it is such a quick read that this does detract much. The only criticism that I have is that the writer waffles between glamorizing the life of some of the "luckier" prostitutes, and asserting that they most led lives that ended with suicide.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Soiled Doves is an enlightening view of 1800s prostitution, April 16, 1998

By 

Glenn Kietzmann ([e-mail]) (Carroll, Nebraska) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Soiled Doves: Prostitution in the Early West (Women of the West) (Paperback)

Soiled Doves was a well written and informative view of 19th century prostitution in the United States. Readers will smile, cry, and become angry, as each of the stories unfold. "The Love Story of Lottie Johl" is a haunting story which relates the full spectrum of the human condition, and relates how humanity can be so incredibly cruel to others, those individuals that were simply trying to make a way for themselves in the west. The lives of many women were explored in Soiled Doves. The stories were tastefully written and a delight to read. After reading Soiled Doves, one develops a different, more forgiving, view of prostitution and the ladies who were employed in it during the 1800s. Soiled Doves is a "must read" if the reader has an appreciation for American History and the role prostitution played in its development.

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Red light districts of the frontier. . ., July 14, 2004

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Soiled Doves: Prostitution in the Early West (Women of the West) (Paperback)

The author's list of acknowledgements fills a page at the opening of this historical account of prostitution in the early West. She has clearly done her research. And her book is a window into a subject often alluded to in the literature of the frontier but seldom if ever revealed in any depth.

The West was a man's world where, according to Seagrave, men often outnumbered women 50 to 1. Employment opportunities being few for uneducated young women, a great many found their way to the brothels in the red light districts of cities, cow towns and mining camps. The author describes these establishments from the most genteel down to the most squalid. She also characterizes the role of the madam, an entrepreneur whose business contributed to the local economy while being at the same time illegal and an object of outrage among the community's socially respectable.

Much of the book is devoted to profiles of individual madams, often known for their sharp business sense and their generosity, while contributing freely to local charitable organizations. The book includes many period photographs, including studio portraits of well established madams and the women who worked for them. One chapter is devoted to the special plight of Chinese prostitutes who lived under conditions of slavery in Western states into the early 20th century.

While the book is informative, a reader may sometimes question its accuracy as history. Myth and legend have a way of mingling with documented fact, and while all of this is interesting, the author isn't scrupulous about distinguishing between them. Because the book tends to dramatize the lives of the women it discusses, a reader looking for an analysis of prostitution in the larger picture of Western social history will probably find a lot of questions unanswered. Still, the book opens up a subject that is too seldom regarded with the historical interest it deserves.