Good Time Girls: Of the Alaska-Yukon Gold Rush - Softcover

Morgan, Lael

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1551109948 ISBN 13: 9781551109947

Publisher: Whitecap Books Ltd, 1999

Synopsis

"Good Time Girls is an important and entertaining addition to gold rush literature. These women are as important a part of the Klondike story as Big Alex and Swiftwater Bill. After all, they too were gold diggers." - Pierre Berton

History has long ignored many of the earliest female pioneers of the Far North - the prostitutes and other "disreputable" women who joined the mass pilgrimage to the booking gold camps of the Alaska and Yukon at the turn of the century. Leaving behind their hometowns and most constraints of the Victorian era, the "good time girls" crossed both geographic and social frontiers, finding freedom, independence, hardship, heartbreak, and sometimes astonishing wealth. These women possessed the courage and perseverance to brave a dangerous journey of more than a thousand miles, into a harsh wilderness where men sometimes outnumbered them more than ten to one. Many of these women later became successful entrepreneurs, wealthy property owners or wives of prominent citizens; one former prostitute married the mayor of Fairbanks and hosted a visit from President Warren G. Harding. Their influence changed life in the Far North forever.

About this title

Review

"Just check your moral judgments at the door and settle in for an evening of wild reading." --Susan English, (Spokane, WA) "Spokesman-Review"

"If you come to Morgan's book with fictional stereotypes, you won't keep them long when you read about the real women. True tales about Mae Field, Corrine B. Gray, Edith Neile, and the women who first braved the trails are grittier than any fictional account." --Nancy Brown, (Kenai, Alaska) "Peninsula Clarion"

"Sympathetic and poignant." -- "Palo Alto (CA) Daily News"

."..Fascinating reading...the abundant, luscious photographs of these amazing women, the 'cribs' from which they worked, their customers, their lovers, and the frontier towns they helped to pioneer are themselves worth the price of the book." --Linda Jaivin, "Los Angeles Times"

."..Fresh, gutsy...," led a list of 10 "under-hyped" exceptional books of 1998. --Ted Rose, Brill's Content

Lael Morgan named Alaska Historian of the Year (1998) for her work on "Good Time Girls". --"Alaska Historical Society"

"This works unique perspective and splendid period photos make it a recommended purchase..." --"Library Journal"

"Loaded with facts and a sense of place, it's a provocative look at a sensational time and spirit." -- "San Francisco Examiner"

""Good Time Girls" is an important and entertaining addition to gold rush literature. These women are as important a part of the Klondike story as Big Alex and Swiftwater Bill. After all, they too were gold diggers."
--Klondike historian Pierre Berton

"One of the 10 best non-fiction books of 1998."
--"LA Times"

From the Publisher

Meet the courageous & outrageous pioneer women of the North
History has long ignored many of the earliest female pioneers of the Far North -- the prostitutes and other "disreputable" women like dance hall girls and entertainers who joined the mass pilgrimage to the booming gold camps of Alaska and the Yukon at the turn of the century. Leaving behind their hometowns and most constraints of the post-Victorian era, the "good time girls" crossed both geographic and social frontiers, finding freedom, independence, hardship, heartbreak, and sometimes astonishing wealth.

Author Lael Morgan introduces you to these women of the gold rush demimonde. Meet "Dutch Kate" Wilson, who pioneered many areas in the Far North long before the "respectable" women who received credit for getting there first ... ruthless heartbreakers Cad Wilson and Rose Blumkin ... "French Marie" Larose, who auctioned herself off as a wife to the highest bidder ... Georgia Lee, who invested her earnings wisely to become one of the wealthiest women in Alaska ... and Edith Neile, called the "Oregon Mare," famous for both her outlandish behavior and her softhearted generosity.

GOOD TIME GIRLS is an authentic, sympathetic, poignant, and often deliciously humorous account of women who were extraordinarily independent even by today's standards.

"GOOD TIME GIRLS is an important and entertaining addition to gold rush literature. These women are as important a part of the Klondike story as Big Alex and Swiftwater Bill. After all, they too were gold diggers."
-- Pierre Berton, author of KLONDIKE

About this edition

• Publisher: Whitecap Books Ltd
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 1551109948
• ISBN 13: 9781551109947
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 351