A random collection of over 1910 books and audiobooks authored by or about my transgender, intersex sisters, and gender-nonconforming persons all over the world. I read some of them, and I was inspired by some of them. I met some of the authors and heroines, some of them are my best friends, and I had the pleasure and honor of interviewing some of them. If you know of any transgender biography that I have not covered yet, please let me know.
Full title: "Reborn" by Tamara Reese.
We know about the existence of this publication only thanks to the excellent search work done by Transascity. Let me quote them what they discovered: "The book tells of a youth filled with gender dysphoria and failure, as well as several attempts to escape into some service or corps (she spent time with both the Navy and the Army), and finally takes her to WWII and her service as a paratrooper in the conflict.
From there we learn of her being wounded in action, her stunt-diving and airplane-flying career, her marriage of convenience, and again a directionless life. The details of her actual medical transition, both the procedures and the processes, are very sparse."
1955,
English,
Tamara Reese,
"Comment Je Suis Devenu(E) Femme" (How I Became a Woman) is the French language edition of Roberta Cowell's Story by Roberta Cowell.
Roberta Elizabeth Marshall Cowell (1918-2011) was a British racing driver and Second World War fighter pilot. She was the first known British trans woman to undergo gender reassignment surgery in 1948.
"For the first thirty-three years of my life, I was Robert Cowell, an aggressive male who had
piloted a Spitfire during the war {WW2}, designed and driven racing cars, married, and become the
father of two children.
Since May 18th, 1951, I have been Roberta Cowell, female. I have become a woman physically, psychologically, glandularly, and legally.
This incredible thing was not an overnight change. I had always known that my body had certain
feminine characteristics. My aggressively masculine manner compensated for this, at least as far as
normal men and women were concerned, but homosexuals invariably took me for one of themselves.
1955,
French,
Roberta Cowell,
Full title: "I Changed My Sex" by Hedy Jo Star.
The book was published in 1955 but I was not able to find the original cover of the first publication. This cover comes from an edition that was published in 1963. The book was reissued as "I changed my sex!": the autobiography of stripper Hedy Jo Star formerly Carl Hammonds; with an introduction by Edwin Poole" in 1980.
Hedy Jo Star (1920-1999) was an American showgirl, costumier, and business woman. She was born Carl Rollins Hammonds in Prague, Oklahoma, the eldest of seven children. According to Zagria's blog, she grew small breasts as a teenager, and her mother took her to several doctors including a ‘brain specialist’, but her parents would not consent to exploratory surgery.
1955,
1963,
1980,
English,
Hedy Jo Star,
USA,
