From the Ladies of Negotiable Virtue reading list. Author Tracy Beach was working at a Starbucks when she uncovered local history relating to Laura Evens (sometimes Evans), active as a worker and madam in parlor houses in Denver, Leadville, Central City and Salida, Colorado. Beach has put together an easy read on Evens, although it’s not entirely clear how much is Evens material and how much is Beach’s interpretations. Ms. Evens took up the life after a stint as a blackjack dealer, when she discovered it was considerably more lucrative. She worked for a while in Jennie Rogers’ House of Mirrors in Denver, her own parlor house in Salida is currently a Shriner’s temple.

Beach’s writing is fairly blunt, with frequent explicit terms; she follows Evens in this, since Evens insisted she was “not a ‘lady of the lamp light’ or a ‘soiled dove’ – I’m a whore”. There’s some padding in the book, as Beach devotes considerable text to historical events – the repeal of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act and World War One, for example – but on the other hand these give time references for Evens’ activities.

Numerous illustrations, often somewhat risqué; Beach uses photographs of prostitutes from the ”Legends of America” website. It’s not clear how many of these are actually of women who worked for or with Evens. No footnotes but there are references by page number. The bibliography is heavy on general histories that don’t directly relate to Evens.
A quick read. For similar stories, see Alice, The Underworld Sewer, and Frontier Madam. ( )