Redding Walters

The List of Soiled Doves Redding Walters

Author Redding Walters came upon raid sheets from bordellos in Vancouver, B. C., Canada while researching in the city's archives in 2011. By comparing the names on the list with census records from the same time, she has been able to piece together tiny snippets of the forgotten women of Vancouver's early days. "The List of Soiled Doves" is a fictional novella that gives voice to the prostitutes, sometimes called soiled doves, that were rounded up routinely by the city. By 1907, these women disappeared from the census records and few traces of any were ever found again. The women collected and catalogued by the city reflect the multi-ethnic, multi-ethical, troubled, fierce, savvy, intelligent, humorous and heart-filled entrepreneurs that populated houses of ill-repute from Alaska to California as the west was won.