A quick skim through Amazon reveals that although there are plenty of books on prostitution, both academic texts and personal accounts, the Encyclopedia of Prostitution and Sex Work is the only reference work currently available in this area. Intended for scholarly research and as a learning resource, the Encyclopedia looks into all sorts of ideas, issues, historical data and biographies from the perspective of prostitution.
The encyclopedia contains 341 entries on diverse topics, ranging from articles on famous courtesans and brothels, issues and incidents such as the fate of the Chinese comfort women, geographical entries looking at the sex industry in Europe, Africa and Asia, as well as more abstract concepts such as abstinence or misogyny. There are articles on Greek flute girls and the Ecuadorian association of sex workers, on prostitution texts such as The Anatomie of Abuses, an Elizabethan attack on a licentious society, or Fanny Hill, a notorious and explicit Victorian novel. Cinema and literature are explored geographically as well as thematically, as are the lives of the famous people in and around this “demi‐monde”: the workers, the predators, the victims, and the reformers.
There is a useful timeline, reproduced at the beginning of both volumes, which starts with the birth of Sappho in c.630BCE and ends in 2006 with the first wrongful dismissal case won by the sex workers' branch of the UK GMB union. Both volumes also contain an alphabetical and a topical list of entries to enable readers to browse the encyclopedia more effectively, as well as a detailed introduction to the subject and purpose of the reference work.
The entries range in size, some running to several pages and subheadings. All words and phrases which have their own entry are highlighted in bold, and there is a bibliography at the end of each entry for further reading. The encyclopedia is illustrated throughout with paintings, posters, calling cards and photos of famous prostitutes, film stills and other images. Several entries have side panels containing excerpts from plays (such as Shakespeare's Measure for Measure), quotations from prostitutes and madams, newspaper reports and studies on prostitution during various eras.
Of particular interest are the four appendices containing primary sources to complement the entries in the main body of the encyclopedia. There are historical documents from social commentators, poetry and lyrics from Hardy, Baudelaire, Rossetti and Whitman among others, several declarations of rights and recommendations for safe practices which are written by sex workers, and legal documents pertaining to various laws and statutes in this area from 1910 onwards. The historical source documents especially, written by reformers and activists such as Bracebridge Hemyng, William Stead and Emma Goldman, stand out with their vivid descriptions of the underbelly of city life in Victorian England and investigations into child trafficking and abduction to supply the many brothels in existence.
I was originally handed this encyclopedia by the archivist at the Institute of Psychiatry who was disappointed with the lack of an entry or even mention of Maggie May, the famous Liverpool prostitute of folk song fame. Despite this aberration, I found it to be an absorbing read, which offers an insight into social behaviour as well as “the oldest profession”. It would be a useful addition to most academic collections, and support workers in this field may also find this of some interest.
