Lost history of Barbary Coast Prostitute Unearthed by SF State Alums

GOLDEN GATE XPRESS -- Out of their fascination came “Alice: Memoirs of A Barbary Coast Prostitute.” The book is a collection of Alice’s stories which were serialized by the paper along with letters that other sex workers wrote to the paper in response. Angus and Anderson, who majored in History and Environmental Studies respectively, wanted to collect and republish Alice’s stories because they felt many of the sentiments expressed by Alice a hundred years ago are still relevant today. Angus and Anderson transcribed Alice’s memoirs by hand, which is located in the San Francisco Bulletin and kept on microfilm at the San Francisco public library, a process that took four years. “We couldn’t afford to hire a transcriber, so it was a labor of love,” Angus said. Angus was pursuing a Master’s in History at SF State before he realized how much time this project would need.