Found at country fair event in eastern Oregon. Interesting stories of the old American west antics. ( )

Upstairs Girls begins with a history of prostitution in the West. The different classes of prostitution are explained; although prostitutes were looked down upon, there were different classes of them. The book ends with short biographies of 14 prostitutes -- these stories include both the madams who owned or managed the houses of prostitution, and the common prostitutes. The book includes a helpful glossary of terms in addition to a bibliography and index. This book is a popular rather than a scholarly history; although there are quotations, the book lacks footnotes/end-notes, and the works some of the quotations are attributed to do not appear in the bibliography. ( )

This book addresses the interesting topic of what prostitution was really like in the American West. The author talks about the different kinds of prostitutes and how/why women became "upstairs girls." There are also several vignettes in the back of the book about famous prostitutes and madams.

The author could have really used a better editor, however; there were numerous punctuation mistakes. ( )