A Comprehensive List of Trans Autobiographies

© 2012 by Dallas Denny

 A Comprehensive List of Trans Autobiographies

 Before the mid-1990s out transsexual and transgendered writers were pretty much shut out of the publishing industry. We weren’t allowed to contribute to the scientific literature, publish novels or short stories or poetry, or write nonfiction.*

But there were two areas of exception.

First was writing for other transgendered and transsexual people. We could do that because we funded it ourselves and there was no one to shut us down. From the 1940s on there were dozens of newsletters, magazines, and books like Pudgy Roberts’ 1967 Female Impersonator’s Handbook and Virginia Prince’s books for crossdressers.

The second exception was autobiographies. We were allowed to tell our life stories. Publishers would allow us to do that. And especially since 1952, when Christine Jorgensen’s story broke in worldwide news, there has been no shortage.

I present here a comprehensive list of autobiographies I have compiled over the past 20+ years.

I say comprehensive, but that’s not quite true. With a couple of exceptions I restricted the list to book-length contributions– and I included non-English works only when I was fairly certain they were autobiographical in nature.

I’ve included works by transsexuals, transgenderists, crossdressers, family members and partners, and of feminine men and masculine women who might or might not identify as transgendered.

I have made a few annotations.

If you know of any autobiographies I’ve left out, please let me know. It’s possible I missed some while compiling the list from my larger file of books, and it’s possible it’s just a work I never stumbled across.

* Several of us did find ways to publish. Here are two:

As early as 1957 Virginia Prince published an article in The American Journal of Psychotherapy. This made her the first sort-of-out transgendered person to contribute to the scientific literature about us.

I say sort of out because Virginia published under a pseudonuym: C.V. (short, presumably, for Charles Virginia) Prince. At the time she was living under her birth name, Arnold Lowman.

Francois Timoleon de Choisy  (1644-1724) was a French nobleman who was dressed as a girl until age 18 and continued on his own volition as an adult. He published a number of books on religion and history, but is best remembered for his posthumously-published memoirs, which include tales of crossdressed seduction.

Trans Autobiographies

Addams, Calpernia. (2002). Mark 947: A life shaped by God, gender, and force of will. Writer’s Club Press.

Addams was the girlfriend of U.S. Army soldier Barry Winchell, who was murdered by a barracks-mate because of the relationship. The incident is the subject of the 2003 film Soldier’s Girl. Addams works today as a filmmaker.

Adreon, L. (1985). Meu corpo minha prisao: Autobiografia de um transsexual. Rio Janeiro, Ed. Marco Zero.

Alexandra. (1992). Ich war ein mann. Germany.

Allen, R. (1954). But for the grace: The true story of a dual existence. London: W.H. Allen.

Ames, Jonathan. (Ed.). (2005). Transsexual metamorphosis: An anthology of transsexual memoirs. New York: Vintage Books.

Anonymous. (1956). Les confessions d’un travesti. France: Les Grandes Etudes Françaises de Psychiatrie.

Ashley, April, with Fallowfield, Duncan. (1983). April Ashley’s odyssey. London: Jonathan Cape.

Ashley, who hailed from a working-class family in Liverpool, had sex reassignment in her early twenties, while working as a female impersonator at Paris’ Le Carrousel night club, and went on to work as a model and hobnob with the rich and famous, whom she does not hesitate to mention in print. Her book is not kind to her associates, but neither is she easy on herself as she discusses her dissolute lifestyle.

Ashley married Arthur Corbett, an admitted crossdresser and a nobleman. Corbett apparently saw his fantasy for himself in Ashley. Their divorce resulted in an unfortunate and unwise decision by Mr. Justice Ormrod, which banned marriages of transsexual persons in Great Britain for many years (Corbett v. Corbett, 1970). Photographs, Index of the rich and famous.

Ashley, April, with Douglas Thomson. (2006). First lady. John Blake.

Baker, Ken. (2001). Man made: A memoir of my body. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Putnam.

Barker, Susan Janet. (2008). A lonely heart: A true transgender story. Google Books.

Beatie, Thomas. (2008) Labour of love: The story of one man’s extraordinary pregnancy. Seal Press.

Bergan, Danielle Marie. (2012). It’s always ookay to be me: A journey to recovering lost hope. Author-published.

Bergstrom, B. 1996). 28-28: A truthful biography about a SEX re-assigned patient which includes the 1st 28 years he lived as a male and the next 28 years as a legal female. Pro’s and con’s of the procedure. Hind sight being 20/20, given a chance, would she go through it all again? Memphis, TN: Unique Publishing.

Beyer, Georgina, as told to C. Casey. (1999). Change for the better: The story of Georgina Beyer. New Zealand.

Blumenstein, Rosalyn. (2003). Branded T. 1st books <www.1stbooks.com>.

Bogdan, Robert. (Ed.). (1974). On being different: The autobiography of Jane Fry. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

Bornstein, Kate. (1994). Gender outlaw: On men, women, and the rest of us. New York: Routledge.

Bornstein’s groundbreaking book is part sociology, part memoir, and entirely entertaining.

Bornstein, Kate. (2012). A queer and pleasant danger: A memoir. Boston: Beacon Press.

Boy George, with Bright, Spencer. (1995). Take it like a man: The autobiography of Boy George. New York: Harper Collins.

Boyd, Helen. (2003). My husband Betty: Everything you always wanted to know about crossdressing but were afraid to ask. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press.

Boyd, Helen. (2007). She’s not the man I married. Seal Press.

Boylan, Jennifer Finney. (2003). She’s not there: A life in two genders. New York: Broadway Books.

Brevard, Alishia. (2001). From Alfred to Alishia to Hollywood. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Brinkle, Michael. (2006). Return to Michael: A transgender story. iUniverse.

Camus, Amy. (1966). Diary of a transvestite, #3. A Mutrix Publication; distributed through Wholesale Books, New York.

Carlotta, with James Cockington. (1994). He did it her way: Carlotta, legend of les Girls. Chippendale, New South Wales, Australia: Pan Macmillan.

Castle, Stephanie. (1992). Feelings: A transsexual’s explanation of a baffling condition. Vancouver, B.C.: Cordela Publishing Co.

The book is a frank discussion of the author’s struggle to deal maturely with her transsexualism, juggle family relationships, and take her place in society as a woman relatively late in life. The author’s limited exposure to and experience with other transsexual people makes this very much her story and limits its generalizability, but it is honest and worth reading if only for the way in which it illustrates the interpersonal problems transsexualism can bring on. Glossary. (7 pp. refs.)

Cecconi, R. (1976). Io, la Romanina– Perché sono diventato donna. Florence: Éditions Vallechi.

Charles, Ru Paul. (1995). Lettin’ it all hang out. New York: Hyperion.

Chernin, Kim. (1997). My life as a boy. New York: Algonquin Books.

Collis, Septima Maria (Mrs. General Charles H.T. Collis). (1889). A woman’s war record. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

Conn, Canary. (1974). Canary: The story of a transsexual. Los Angeles: Nash Publishing Company. Reprinted (1977), New York: Bantam Books.

Autobiography of Canary Conn, who as a teenaged boy won a singing contest and then pursued and achieved gender congruity. The description of her treatment (or lack thereof) while in Tiajuana for sex reassignment surgery is horrifying. Photographs.

Cormier, Frances Olympe. (1995). Frances with an “e”: Our story. Moose Creek, Ontario: Pilgrim Publications.

Cossey, Caroline. Tula: I am a woman. (1982). London: Sphere Books.

Caroline Cossey’s (“Tula’s”) first book, written, as she notes in her second book, My Story, in reaction to her “outing” by the British tabloid press.

Cossey, Carolyn. (1991). My story. Boston: Faber & Faber.

Autobiography of Caroline Cossey, also known as “Tula,” the British fashion model whose transsexualism was brutally revealed in News of the World with the headline “Bond girl was a boy.” Cossey tells of her unsuccessful efforts to obtain the right to marry in the UK and her determination to continue her fight until she obtains that right. There are parallels in her life to that of April Ashley, who also worked as a model, appeared in films, was exposed by the press, and had a court battle, but Cossey, admirably (and unlike April Ashley), refuses to kiss and tell. See Ashley with Fallowfield (1983). Photographs.

County, Jayne, with Smith, Rupert. (1995). Man enough to be a woman. London: Serpent’s tail.

Cowell, Roberta. (1954). Roberta Cowell’s story. London: William Heinemann, Ltd. Reprinted (1955), New York: Lion Library.

Autobiography of Roberta Cowell, a R.A.F. aviator and war hero and post-war racing car driver, who had sex reassignment at about the same time as Christine Jorgensen. Ms. Cowell maintains that she spontaneously began to feminize. Bullough & Bullough (1993, p. 255), as does Ashley (1983), speculate that she may have been a genetic female with congenital adrenogenital syndrome (a condition which causes virilization). Photographs.

Crawford, Stacy, with Cross, Mona Joslin. (1984). The Eve principle: The story of a truly unique transsexual, Stacy Crawford, as told to Mona Joslin Cross. New York: Vantage Press.

Ms. Crawford’s “true uniqueness” seems to be her feminine physique. She accomplished little before surgery (mostly hiding out in her house), and her post-surgical adjustment is characterized by suicide attempts and repeated psychiatric hospitalizations. Despite her glamorous appearance, she has a bad case of not knowing who she is: “Looking at me, I was everything I had always wanted to be, and I was standing there looking at myself and thinking, ‘This is what I have always wanted to look like– this is it– I am here, but, what have I got, really?'” “I had thought that when I awoke and my penis was gone, my problems would all be gone, too.” I had a recent report that she is well and still working as a hairdresser in Memphis. Photographs. (No refs.)

Crisp, Quintin. (1983). The naked civil servant. New York: New American Library.

Crisp was a one-man gay-and-gender liberation front as early as the 1930s. This book was made into a movie with the same title.

Crisp, Quintin. (1981). How to become a virgin. Fontana Paperbacks.

Crisp, who became famous after 50 years of obscurity, tells of his life, which was hardly virginal.

Cummings, K. (1992). Katherine’s diary: The story of a transsexual. Port Melbourne, Australia: William Heinemann.

The author considers her transsexualism to be “secondary”; that is, to have developed rather late in life. For many years she considered herself a crossdresser. At least as much space is devoted to her description of her career as a librarian as to her transsexual career. She is from and has primarily resided in Australia, but was in the U.S. during the early days of organized crossdressing, and it is interesting to read her description of events which are also covered in Darrell Raynor’s A Year Among the Girls, Virginia Prince’s autobiography in issue no. 100 of Transvestia magazine, and H.G. Beigel’s 1969 article, “A weekend in Alice’s Wonderland.” Cummings can be seen in old issues of Transvestia; she used the name Fiona, which she later changed to Katherine.

Cummings had sex reassignment surgery in 1989, but it is clear from her last several chapters that at the time of writing, she was far from resolving her feelings about her failed marriage: “Early in 1991 I offered to return without conditions to the family as John, since I would rather live with Diana as John than without her as Kate. Does this mean I am not a real transsexual? I don’t think so. It simply means I have two very strong emotional ties in my life, one to Diana, and the other to Katherine. My ideal life would still be to live as Katherine with Diana in loving friendship but, of the alternatives, my love for Diana is stronger than my love for Katherine.”

Darling, Candy. (1992). Candy Darling. New York: Hanuman Books.

Candy Darling was a member of Andy Warhol’s Factory. She appeared in a number of films, including two of Warhol’s, “Flesh” and “Women in Revolt,” and was featured in Lou Reed’s Song, “A Walk on the Wild Side.” She died tragically young. This evocative little (4 1/4″ x 2 3/4″) book, published 18 years after her death in 1974, consists of an introduction by Jeremiah Newton and excerpts from Candy’s notebooks. Photographs.

Darling, Candy (Francesca Passalacqua and Jeremiah Newton, Eds.). (1997). My face for the world to see. Hardy Marks Publications.

Davis, Sharon. (1986). A finer specimen of womanhood: A TS speaks out. New York: Vantage Press.

Self-published autobiography of Sharon Davis, a male-to-female transsexual person. Photographs.

De Eraso, C. (S. & G. Stepto, Trans.). (1996). Lieutenant nun: Memoir of a Basque transvestite in the New World. Boston: Beacon Press.

Desmond, Perry, & Hymers, R.L. (1976). Perry: A transformed transexual. Hutchinson, MN: Standard Printing.

The “transformation” in the title is post-op Perry Desmond’s conversion via Christianity and reversion to male form as a “eunuch for the Lord.”

Diane. (1987). Diane par Diane. Brussels: Acropole.

Dianna, & Felicity Cochrane. (1972). Once I was a man. Behold: I am a woman. New York: Pyramid Books.

Douglas, A.L. (1983). Triple jeopardy: The autobiography of Angela Lynn Douglas. Angela Lynn Douglas.

Dullak, Sylvanie. (1989). Je serai elle (I am she): Mon odyssee transsexuelle. Paris: Loisir (also Presses de la Cite, 1983).

Eberhardt, Isabelle. (1988). The passionate nomad: The diary of Isabelle Eberhardt. Boston: Beacon Press.

Edmonds, Sarah Emma E. (1864). Nurse and spy in the union army. Hartford. Hartford, CT: W.S. Williams & Co.

Edmonds was a passing woman who worked as a (male) nurse during the Civil War.

Everage, Dame Edna. (1989). My gorgeous life: The life, the loves, the legend. London: Macmillan.

Feinberg, Leslie. (1980). Journal of a transsexual. World View Forum, 55 W 17th St., 5th Floor, New York, NY 10011.

Feliciano, L. (2004). Secrets of an intimate life: The life of a transsexual. PublishAmerica.

Geibel, C. (1983). Im falschen korper gefangen (Imprisoned in the wrong body). Munchen: Wilhelm Heyne Verlag.

Girshick, Lori B., & Green, Jamison. (2009). Transgender voices: Beyond men and women. UPNE.

Goulian, Jon-Jon. (2011). The man in the gray flannel skirt. Random House.

Grant, Julia. (1994). Just Julia. London: Boxtree.

Autobiography of Julia Grant, whose sex reassignment was documented on BBC.

Green, Abby M. (n.d., but ca 1993). Confusion. Available from Ms. Abby M. Greene, 8 Daniel Webster Drive, Apt. #30, West Franklin, NH 03235.

Self-published male-to-female transsexual autobiography.

Green, Jamison. (1995). The story of a transsexual man. Oakland, CA: Jamison Green.

Green, Jamison. (2004). Becoming a visible man. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press.

Griggs, C. (1995). Passage through Trinidad: Journal of a surgical sex change. Jefferson, NC: MacFarland & Co.

Guerin, E.J. (1861). Published for the author: An autobiography comprising thirteen years life in the States, California, and Pike’s Peak. Dubuque, IA: E.J. Guerin.

Guerin, E.J. (1968). Mountain Charley or the adventures of Mrs. E.J. Guerin. Marzulla, F.W., & Kostka, W. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press.

Mountain Charley, according to various sources, was a passing woman (that is, a biological female who passed as a man).

Hancock, Emily. (1989). The girl within. New York: Fawcett Columbine.

Harris, D. (2005). Dairy of a drag queen. New York: Carroll & Graf/Avalon.

Hewitt, Paul, with Jane Warren. (1997). A self-made man: The diary of a man born in a woman’s body. London: Trafalgar Square Publishing Company.

Holland, B. (1992). She is my son: The Adrienne Clarke story. Auckland, New Zealand: Aphrodite Press.

Hollis, C.M. (1993). Beyond belief: “The discovery of my existence”. Galena, IL: Genesis Publications.

As the title suggests, this is a pain-filled autobiography of a male-to-female transsexual person. The book consists of journal entries beginning in 1986, when the author’s gender dysphoria suddenly emerged, and ends in the early 1990s, after she has had surgery after a difficult transition and an inadequate real-life test.

Many of the journal entries concern suicide, and the next-to-last entry, which is written some months after sex reassignment surgery and only a couple of weeks before the hopeful final entry, is a suicide note. It’s clear, even in the follow-up that Hollis has not worked through the issue of separation from her wife and children, who refuse to see her in her new incarnation. (Two appendices, 15 refs.)

Howard-Howard, M., with Michaels, A. (1988). I was a white slave in Harlem. NY: Four Walls Eight Windows.

Before the end of the first chapter, Howard-Howard is in bed with “the biggest drug dealer in Harlem.” This book recounts her life as a (in her own words) “drag queen,” and prostitute, in which she meets various celebrities and struggles with and overcomes a debilitating addiction to heroin. The publisher notes, in a postscript, that much and possibly most of the material in the book is fictitious. Photographs.

Howey, Noelle. (2002). Dress codes: Of three girlhoods– my mother’s, my father’s, and mine. New York: Picador.

Hoyman, Rhonda D. (1999). Rhonda: The woman in me. A journey through gender transition. Timonium, MD: Pearce Publishers, Inc.

Hunt, Nancy. (1978). Mirror image: The odyssey of a male-to-female transsexual. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.

Hunt was a newspaperman who became a newspaperwoman during middle age.

Jay, M. (1982). Gerald/ine– for the love of a transvestite. An autobiographical episode. London: Caliban Books. Reprinted by Mandarine Paperbacks in 1992, and in revised form in 1995 by OutPost Press.

Johnson, Katherin, & Castle, Stephanie. (1996). Prisoner of gender: A transsexual and the system. Vancouver: Perceptions Press.

Jorgensen, Christine. (1967). Christine Jorgensen: A personal autobiography. New York: Paul S. Ericksson, Inc. Reprinted in 1968 by Bantam Books.

The report of Christine Jorgensen’s surgical and hormonal sex reassignment hit the headlines in late 1952, ushering in the modern age of transsexualism. Jorgensen tells her story, some fifteen years after her surgery and twenty years before her death from cancer. Photos. (Reprinted in 2001 by Cleis Press, with an introduction by Susan Stryker).

Just Evelyn. (1998). … Mom, I need to be a girl. Imperial Beach, CA: Walter Trook Publishing.

Kaggwa, Julius. (1997). From Juliet to Julius: In search of my true gender identity. Fountain Books.

Keulen, Mensje van. (1992). Geheime dame / Mensje van Keulen. Amsterdam: Atlas.

Khosla, Dhillon.(2006). Both sides now: One man’s journey through womanhood. Tarcher.

Kilmer-Purcell, Josh. (2006). I am not myself these days: A memoir. New York: HarperCollins.

Lady Chablis with Bouloukos, Theodore. (1996). Hiding my candy. New York: Pocket Books.

Lafayette, R-R. (1968). The transsexual: An autobiography by Richard-Rachel Lafayette. The true story of a man turned woman. Canoga Park, CA: Viceroy Books.

Lake, Bambi, with Orloff, Alvin. (1996). The unsinkable Bambi Lake: A fairy tale containing the dish on Cockettes, punks, and angels. San Francisco: Manic D Press.

Lang, T. (1971). The difference between a man and a woman. New York: Bantam.

Langley, Linda. (2002). He’s my daughter: A mother’s journey to acceptance. Indra Publishing.

La Rue, Danny. (with Elson, Howard.) (1987). From drags to riches: My autobiography. London: Vikins.

Les confessions d’un travesti. (1956). France: Les Grandes Etudes Françaises de Psychiatrie.

Lind, Earl. (1918). The autobiography of an androgyne. New York: The Medico-Legal Journal.

(Lind is a pseudonym of Ralph Werther/Jennie June).

Lloyd, Stephanie Ann. (1991). Stephanie: A girl in a million. London: Ebury Press.

Autobiography of Stephanie Ann Lloyd, a transsexual woman who operated a series of transformation shops and a highly suspect “gender clinic” in England. Photographs.

Lobell, Lucy Ann. (1855). Narrative of Lucy Ann Lobell, the female hunter of Delaware and Sullivan counties, New York. New York: Lucy Ann Lobell.

Lobdell, Bambi L. (2012). A strange sort of being: The transgender life of Lucy Ann/ Joseph Israel Lobdell, 1928-1912.

Maddock, L. (as told to him by Leonard Wheeler). (1964). Sex life of a transvestite. Hollywood: K.D.S. Publishing Company.

Sexploitation book.

Marlowe, Kenneth. (1965). I am Kenneth Marlowe. Chicago: Novel Books.

Marlowe, Kenneth. (1965). A madam’s memoirs. Chicago: Novel Books.

Marlowe, Kenneth. (1965). Mr. Madam: Confessions of a male madam. L.A.: Sherbourne Press.

Marlowe, Kenneth. (1966). Cathouse mother. Agorua, CA: Pad Library.

Marlowe, Kenneth. (1966). The gay world of Kenneth Marlowe.

Martino, M. & Martino, H. (1977). Emergence: A transsexual autobiography. New York: Crown Publishers.

This is the story of a female-to-male transsexual person who became a nun for a time before seeking and obtaining sex reassignment.

McCloskey, Deidre. (1999). Crossing: A memoir. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Milstead, Frances. (2001). My son Divine. Boston: Alyson Publications, Inc.

Morgan, Pat., as told to Hoffman, P. (1973). The man-maid doll. Secaucus, NJ: Lyle Stuart, Inc.

This is the autobiography of a male cross-dressing prostitute who eventually had sex reassignment surgery. Photographs.

Morris, Jan. (1974). Conundrum: An extraordinary narrative of transsexualism. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. Reprinted by Coronet in 1975.

James Morris was on the first successful expedition to climb Mount Everest with Sir Edmund Hillary. Later, he became Jan. Conundrum centers on the process of he sex reassignment. Morris’ talents as a writer make for a good read.

Morris, Jan. (1989). Pleasures of a tangled life. New York: Random House.

In this retrospective of her life, Jan’s sex reassignment does not play a major role.

Munroe, Carolyne Jayne. (1993). A tale of two sexes: The story of a transformation. Devon: Bonden Publishers.

Nettick, Geri, & Elliott, Beth. (1995). Mirrors: Portrait of a lesbian transsexual. New York: Masquerade Books.

Earlier was published as floppy disk by Spectrum Press in Chicago.

Newman, Toni. I rise: The transformation of Toni Newman. CreateSpace.

Novic, Richard.J. (2005). Alice in Genderland. iUniverse.com.

O’Keefe, Tracie, & Fox, Katrina (Eds.). (2003). Finding the real me: True tales of sex and gender diversity. Jossey-Bass.

Paris, Rico Adrian. (2005). Transman– Bitesize: The story of a woman who became a man. Authorhouse.

Pepper, John. (1982). A man’s tale. London: Quartet Books.

Colorfully-written account of the author’s attempts to reconcile the masculine and feminine aspects of his persona, first with crossdressing, and finally with Buddhism. The author exhibits all the symptoms of what Moir & Jessel (1991) would call “a masculinized brain.”

Pratt, Minnie Bruce. (1995). S/He. New York: Firebrand Books.

Rankin, “J.”, as told to Blake, R. (1969). The male lesbian: The bizarre history of a man who actually lives the life of a lesbian! Myra Breckenridge may be entertaining fiction, but this is the real thing. Cleveland, OH: Century Books.

Raskin, Lyn. (1971). Diary of a transexual. Olympia Press.

Rees, Mark. (1995). Dear sir or madam: The autobiography of a female-to-male transsexual. London: Cassells.

Rice, M.S. (1985). Michelle Danielle is dead. Nashville, TN: Jonathan Publishers of Nashville.

Richards, R., & Ames, J. (1983). Second serve: The Renée Richards story. New York: Stein & Day.

Rigsbee, R., with Bakker, D.F. (1983). The agony of deception. Los Angeles: Huntington House.

Rodman, Dennis, with Keown, T. (1996). Bad as I wanna be. New York: Delacourte Press.

Basketball’s crossdressing bad boy tells all.

Rose, Donna. (2003). Wrapped in blue: A journey of discovery. Living Legacy Press.

Rowe, R.J. (1997). Bert & Lori: The autobiography of a cross-dresser. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.

Rudd, Peggy. (1989). My husband wears my clothes: Crossdressing from the perspective of a wife. Katy, TX: PM Publishers.

Rutherford, Erica. (1993). Nine lives: The autobiography of Erica Rutherford. Charlottetown, Canada: Ragweed Press.

Scott, R.H.F. (1973, 1994). The transvestite memoirs of the Abbe de Choisy. London: Peter Owen.

Actual translation of de Choisy’s memoirs and a story which Scott feels de Choisy (1664-1724) co-wrote. De Choisy, a French nobleman who was reared as a girl, was aggressively heterosexual although he appreciated the attention of men when crossdressed. His unending preoccupation with clothing and relentless sexual pursuit of pubescent girls suggests that he was a crossdresser and not transsexual. Illustrations. (6 pp. end notes, 1 p. refs.)

Sevile, L. (1965). I want to be male again. In Sinclair, (1965). I was male. Chicago: Novel Books.

Included in the book I was male, it is the story of a man who had sex reassignment and now regrets it. See Sinclair (1965).

Sharp, Elizabeth Amelia. (1910). William Sharp (Fiona MacLeod): A memoir. New York: Duffield & Company.

Sherman, Gayle. (ca 1964). “I want to be a woman!” The autobiography of female impersonator Gayle Sherman. Chicago: Novel Books.

Scholinski, Dianne. (1997). The last time I wore a dress. Riverhead Books. New York.

Simmons, Dawn Langley. (1971). Man into woman: A transsexual autobiography. New York: MacFadden-Bartell, Inc.

The author, who became a Charleston socialite, tells of her infatuation with and marriage to a black man and how it scandalized the town. She is convinced that she became pregnant.

Simmons, Dawn Langley. (1995). Dawn: A Charleston legend. Charleston, SC: Wyrick & Co.

Sinclair, Abby. (1965). I was male. Chicago: Novel Books.

Written to titillate and shock, this book is a social barometer which shows just how much things have changed. Includes a brief autobiographical sketch by Abby Sinclair, who mentions that she played the second female lead in the Raymond Auclair film, “Fatale”; a discussion of crossdressing and transsexualism; and an anonymously written autobiographical chapter called, “I want to be male again,” by an individual (Latina Seville) whose major complaint is that postoperatively, she gets no pleasure from the sexual act. Photographs on inside covers. (No refs.)

Smith, Phoebe. (1979). Phoebe. Phoebe Smith, P.O. Box 16314, Atlanta, GA 30321.

In this self-published memoir, the author tells of her difficulty in finding competent medical and psychological care in her quest for sex reassignment in Atlanta in the 1970s.

Sosa, C.E. (n.d.). I had been a woman. Venezuela: Ultimas Noticias.

Star, Hedy Jo. (1963). My unique change. Chicago: Novel Books.

This earliest of transsexual autobiographies is mentioned by Sandy Stone in her 1992 essay, “A Posttranssexual Manifesto: The Empire Strikes Back.”

Stern, Howard. (1995). Miss America. New York: Regan Books.

 Stirling, P. (1989). So different: An extraordinary autobiography. Brookvale, NSW, Australia: Simon & Schuster Australia.

Stone, Randy, with Trent, Dick. (1975). Diary of a transvestite hooker. Eros.

Pseudonyms of filmmaker Ed Wood, Jr. Most likely this is fiction, but may draw upon some of Wood’s own experiences.

Thompson, Raymond (with Kitty Sewell). (1995). “What took you so long?” A girl’s journey to manhood. London: Penguin.

Valerio, Max. (1997). A man : The transsexual journey of an agent provocateur. New York: William.

Valerio, Max. (2006). The testosterone files: My hormonal and social transformation from female to male. Seal Press.

Van Oosterwijck, D. (1975). Femme j’etais: Homme je suis (Woman, I am: Man, I was). Brussels: Rossel.

Velazquez, Lorena Janeta & Worthington, C.J. (1842). The women in battle: A narrative of the exploits, adventures and travels of Madame Loreta Janeta Velazquez, otherwise known as Lieutenant Harry T. Buford, Confederate States Army. Full text available online.

Vincent, N. (2005). Self-made man: One woman’s journey into manhood and back. New York: Viking.

Von Keppker, H. (1968). The transsexual: The true story of a MAN turned WOMAN. An autobiography of Richard-Rachel Lafayette. Canoga Park, CA: Viceroy Books.

Von Mahlsdorf, Charlotte (Jean Holander, Transl. (1995). I am my own woman: The outlaw life of Charlotte Von Mahlsdorf, Berlin’s most distinguished transvestite. (Published in German as Ich bin meine eigene frau). San Francisco: Cleis Press.

Walker, Mary. (1878). Unmasked: Or the science of immorality. Philadelphia: William H. Boyd.

West, Lucy Brewer. (1966). The female marine: Or, Adventures of Miss Lucy Brewer. Da Capo Press.

West, Lucy Brewer. (1816). The awful beacon… by one in disguise served three years as a marine on board the frigate Constitution. Boston: N. Coverly, Jr.

Woodlawn, H., with Copeland, J. (1992). A low life in high heels: The Holly Woodlawn story. New York: St. Martin’s Press.

The adventures of Holly Woodlawn, who was a member of Andy Warhol’s Factory, and who is immortalized in the opening verse of Lou Reed’s song “Walk on the Wild Side” and in Warhol’s film “Trash,” are recounted in a campy, but fascinating manner. Lots of name-dropping. Photographs.

Tags: books, featured, History, Identity, Transsexual

Category: Transgender Body & Soul, Transgender History