Good Time Party Girl: The Notorious Life of Dirty Helen Cromwell 1886 - 1969

(Paperback)

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This long-lost autobiography of a woman who lived life with no regrets from the 1880s to the 1960s offers a rare look into the colourful criminal underworld from New York to San Francisco and every whorehouse, tavern, and mining camp in between. Dirty Helen's life is a rarely seen look into the reality of a working-class woman who chose sex-work as a path to the good life.

Reviews

....Feral House, an innovative Pacific Northwest-based publisher, which has released this new edition as "Good Time Party Girl: The Notorious Life of Dirty Helen Cromwell 1886-1969 (Feral House).
If this new title is subdued, the text is not. "In addition to reworking and reediting, I unbowdlerized the text," Ward says. "The 1966 editors made silly changes to avoid pornography accusations. She put all the profanity back in.
Ward has done a superb job, compelling local writer Martin Billheimer to rightly call the book, "A slightly mad version of 'Sister Carrie'." -- Rick Kogan, Chicago Tribune--Rick Kogan "Chicago Tribune"

Author Bio

Helen Worley Cromwell born in Cicero, Indiana in 1886 she was known far and wide as "Dirty Helen." In the 1930's, 40's, and 50's, her Milwaukee bar (The Sunflower Inn) was a rendezvous for the famous and the infamous. Sports heroes, movie stars, gangsters, and regular folks all 'pulled up the floor' (there were no chairs or stools) to listen as Helen regaled them with stories of her wildlife from her famously filthy mouth. From Cincinnati to Chicago to New York City to San Francisco to the gold mining camps of Canada and eventually settling in Milwaukee, Helen used her wits and body as she befriended gangsters like Al Capone and Big Jim Colosimo. This is the story of a mother, a prostitute, and entrepreneur who lived by her own rules. Assisted by Robert Dougherty, 'Dirty Helen' was first published in 1966.