A random collection of over 1994 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: "Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America" by Esther Newton.
"For two years Ester Newton did field research in the world of drag queens - homosexual men who make a living impersonating women. Newton spent time in the noisy bars, the chaotic dressing rooms, and the cheap apartments and hotels that make up the lives of drag queens, interviewing informants whose trust she had earned and compiling a lively, first-hand ethnographic account of the culture of female impersonators.
Mother Camp explores the distinctions that drag queens make among themselves as performers, the various kinds of night clubs and acts they depend on for a living, and the social organization of their work. A major part of the book deals with the symbolic geography of male and female styles, as enacted in the homosexual concept of "drag" (sex role transformation) and "camp," an important humor system cultivated by the drag queens themselves."
1972,
English,
Esther Newton,
Original title: "I travestiti" (The transvestites) by Lisetta Carmi, (Rome, Essedi, 1972).
This is a photographic book with about 150 black and white shots on a phenomenon that – at the beginning of the 70s – did not fail to cause a sensation, gender identity. The volume was originally equipped with a paper dust jacket (now very rare) to hide from view a cover that for the time was considered particularly scandalous.
The photos were shot in Genoa from 1965 to the early 1970s. It is an intimate and deeply sensitive meditation on sexual identity. Lisetta Carmi was the first professional artist to photograph the transgender community.
1972,
Italian,
Lisetta Carmi,
Full title: "Behold I am a Woman Now" by Dianna Boileau.
Behold, I Am a Woman (1972) by Dianne Boileau is one of the earliest autobiographical accounts of a transgender woman’s life and transition in Canada. The book begins with a mix of historical context and personal reflection. Dianne frames her story as one that is not only about herself but also about the larger struggles of people like her, combining moments of laughter, fear, and sadness with a plea for tolerance.
Her narrative opens with a night of tragedy: a late drive through Toronto that ended in a fatal accident, killing her close friend Rosemary. The trauma of this event haunts the opening of the book and later leads to Dianne’s public exposure, a trial, and national attention. From there, she takes the reader back to her beginnings. She was born Clifford on New Year’s Eve in Winnipeg, abandoned by her biological mother and placed in an orphanage before being adopted by Leo and Mary Boileau, a poor but loving couple in Manitoba. Her childhood was one of isolation in a rural home without electricity, running water, or neighbors. She was a sensitive and withdrawn only child, deeply tied to her parents but increasingly aware that she was different.
1972,
Canada,
Dianna Boileau,
English,
