There was much crusading in America to ""save the fallen,"" but little on the part of American social protest writers. Yet one group of male authors created fiction about the prostitute. Laura Hapke examines how they attempted to turn an outcast into a heroine in a literature otherwise known for its puritanical attitude toward fallen women. Hapke re-evaluates Stephen Crane's famous ""Maggie: A Girl of the Streets"", and other works of fiction. She also draws on a number of period sources, among them urban guide books and medical treatises.