"In the latter part of the 20th century, I was perhaps the most notorious person in the world who had become a woman after growing up a boy and then a man. My fame came after I sued the tennis organizations, successfully, to be allowed to compete as a woman professional in the U.S. Open Tennis championships in 1977. I became in an instant a pioneer for sexually disenfranchised people.
After playing on the professional tour for five years, I coached all-time champion Martina Navratilova to several major championships and then returned to my main occupation of eye surgeon and physician. I wrote one textbook on eye muscle surgery, but I am better known for my two autobiographies, Second Serve and No Way Renee. In the present century I am hardly known in the public world at all, save for a few tennis fans who recognize and greet me at the U.S. Open every summer.
This collection of stories has nothing to do with my odyssey from man to woman, that subject is well covered in the autobiographies. In fact, the stories have nothing to do with sex, or gender. I wrote these stories to chronicle some of my life apart from what I was notorious for-interesting things I experienced unrelated to my infamy. These stories are all mixed together, some written as "Dick," some as "Renee," some from childhood, others in my dotage. Some are from my life as a young doctor in training and then a Naval medical officer, some as a parent, some experiences with famous people-all written in the first person-Dick, Renee, doc, "super senior," whatever I was at the time. Like Papillon, the famous Frenchman who wrote about escaping from Devil's Island twice, he did have another life of great adventure. So did I."
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