“Shari Holman – Not Even the Clothes on Her Back”
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In England, in the 1830s, at the time of a major cholera epidemic, a young girl, the orphaned daughter of a prostitute, finds that working in a pottery factory does not earn her enough money for herself and her child. She must work at night like her mother, as a prostitute. Having virtually no money, she rents her dress, and is followed while she walks the streets so that she will not run off with her outfit. She is called a dress lodger. Shari Holman, a native of rural Virginia, and later a resident of Brooklyn, New York, has researched the lives of girls who were dress lodgers in England in the 1830s. She is the author of a book of historical fiction about Gustine, a 15-year-old dress lodger who lived and worked in Sunderland, England in 1831, entitled “The Dress Lodger.”
Shari Holman recommends “The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down,” by Anne Fadiman.
Originally Broadcast: February 6, 2001
Podcast: Download
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