The building that Lou Graham built, which still stands in Pioneer Square today.

What We Lose When We Tell False Histories

Or: I wrote a whole book about a famous sex worker and of course no one wants to publish it

Quick update: I ended up just publishing the book. You can get a Real Copy or an ebook through Amazon (barf) or you can just download it from my website. I did it in a fugue state so it’s deeply imperfect but I just wanted it to be out there so that when people email me (which they do almost weekly) about it, there’s a link.

First, here’s a story.

Almost four years ago, I was approached by an academic press who wanted me to write something. I pitched a book and then signed a contract to write a book about a woman who lived in Seattle around the turn of the 20th century. I spent the next three years in weird archival spaces until the pandemic closed them all down and, at the end, I had a book that I was pretty proud of.

The entire idea of the book was to dive into some of the popular stories told about a woman whose life was fascinating — but had been completely mischaracterized by a gentleman “historian” with a known flair for…