A Madam’s Life Story

Colorado historian Tracy Beach has recently published the biography of one of Colorado’s most colorful and entrepreneurial Red Light District proprietors, My Life as a Whore: The Biography of Madam Laura Evens, 1871-1953 (Johnson Books, $18.95). Forthright, provocative and straight forward, Beach has written one of the best biographies of a Western madam since Max Evans’ Madame Millie. Well researched and documented, with numerous photographs, Beach’s biography of Laura Evans does not leave the story in the 19th century, but actually brings the story well into the 20th century, documenting the history of her life as a prostitute, her trials and tribulations managing a house of prostitution until 1949, and the challenges of a woman owning her own business through the end of the frontier West, two world wars, Prohibition and the Great Depression. Beach’s research also provides an excellent local history of the history of brothels, and their role in the economy and society of Leadville, Denver, Central City and Salida, Colorado. It is available for purchase at BigEarthPublishing.com.