California Madams

by Sherry Monahan

published by Farcountry Press

  • With the discovery of gold at Sutter's Mill in 1848, fortune-seekers from around the globe descended on California, among them a sprinkling of enterprising women.

    Author Sherry Monahan explains, "Living in the wild American West provided women with equal opportunity - for both success and failure. Conventional wisdom suggests that women became prostitutes only because they were desperate. . . In fact, many of the women were smart entrepreneurs and saw a way to acquire fast and, in several cases, vast wealth.

    Rich in details combed from historical archives, California Madams uncovers the enigmatic and salacious lives of twenty-four women who ran houses of ill repute in the Golden State from the 1840's to the 1940's. Here are the hedonistic and sometimes heroic exploits of Margaret Appel, Diamond Jessie, Hattie Wells, Ah Toy, and Lee Francis, but also the unsung sagas of Emily Edwards, Cora Lee, Sylvia Daniels, May Ellis, Alma, Jewett, and many more.



168 pages, 6 x 9 , index, 60 softcovers per case, Perfect Bound

softcover
ISBN 10: 1560376597
ISBN 13: 9781560376590
$16.95

RELEASE DATE
07/10/2019

 

 

 

 


California Madams

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Sherry Monahan began her writing career when she combined her passion for food, travel, and history to pen her first book, Taste of Tombstone, in 1998. That same passion landed her a monthly magazine column in 2009 when she began writing her food column in True West entitled, “Frontier Fare”. She also enjoys researching the genealogy of food and spirits. Her work has followed some interesting women on the frontier. Her Mrs. Earp book details the lives of the women who called themselves “Mrs. Earp”. In Wicked West, she looks at all the vices on the frontier including prostitution, drinking, drugs, and gambling.

She is a past president of Western Writers of America (2014-2016) and holds memberships in the James Beard Foundation, the Author’s Guild, Women Writing the West, Single Action Shooting Society, and the Wild West History Association. Sherry is also a member of the Association of Professional Genealogists. Sherry is one of the original members of the Most Intrepid Western Author Posse. She and her fellow posse members were sworn in as honorary Dodge City marshals during one of their “rides.”


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