{"product_id":"alice-memoirs-of-a-barbary-coast-prostitute-9781597143615","title":"Alice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute","description":"In 1913 the \u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Bulletin\u003c\/i\u003e published a serialized, ghostwritten memoir of a prostitute who went by the moniker 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: four thousand letters poured into the \u003ci\u003eBulletin\u003c\/i\u003e, 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. For the first time in print since 1913, \u003ci\u003eAlice: Memoirs of a Barbary Coast Prostitute\u003c\/i\u003e presents the memoirs of Alice Smith and a selection of letters responding to her story. 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAnderson, Ivy:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Ivy Anderson is a San Francisco-based writer who focuses on issues of ecology and radical history. Her reportage on water management issues was published in \u003ci\u003eWater Efficiency Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e and and her poetry in \u003ci\u003ePoecology\u003c\/i\u003e. She holds a B.A. in environmental studies with a minor in geography, runs a community garden, and is on the board of a bookstore collective in San Francisco.\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eAngus, Devon:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - Devon Angus is an artist, activist, and historian based in San Francisco. He composed and performed a conceptual folk operetta based on San Francisco history, \u003ci\u003eThe Ghosts of Barbary\u003c\/i\u003e, throughout the Bay Area, Switzerland, and Italy. He organized and published a series of oral histories of immigrants in the Catskills region, and was the recipient of an arts grant through the New York State Council on the Arts for his show \u003ci\u003eSongs and Stories of Old New York\u003c\/i\u003e. Angus is currently pursuing a history M.A. at San Francisco State University.","brand":"Heyday Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50421200519442,"sku":"9781597143615","price":20.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_9cf08e28-ac43-446b-bd73-3c7576d8c7fa.jpg?v=1729503718","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/alice-memoirs-of-a-barbary-coast-prostitute-9781597143615","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}