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.
Original title: "Vouloir être: transsexuelle, femme et mère" (Wanting to be: transsexual, woman and mother) by Marie-Josée Enard, afterword by Catherine Rihoit.
This incredible story raises many questions. The truth is that the child is hermaphrodite: the sex of angels. But angels, we love them in heaven, that is to say dead, they have absolutely no place here below. Marie-Josée dreams with such force that it becomes real. And yet she has to wake up. And when she wakes up, she's in the middle of a nightmare.
As in the past, when the other children refused to play with her and called her a “chick”, they point the finger at her, they don't give her a job. They reproach her for having prostituted herself, and they push her to return to prostitution. Because if there is one thing that disturbs more than monsters, it is a monster who says he is like you and me.
1982,
French,
Marie-Josée Enard,
"Tula: Ik ben een vrouw" (Tula: I am a woman) is the Dutch language edition of "Tula: I am a Woman" (1982) by Caroline Cossey.
Tula: My Story offers an intimate glimpse into the remarkable journey of Caroline Cossey, the British model and actress better known as Tula. Published in 1991 as a follow-up to her 1982 memoir Tula: I Am a Woman, this second volume goes further in exploring what it meant to live openly as a transgender woman in the public eye. At a time when trans stories were largely ignored or sensationalized, Cossey’s narrative stood out for its unflinching honesty and quiet courage.
Caroline was born on August 31, 1954, in the quiet village of Brooke, Norfolk, and was assigned male at birth. It wasn’t until later that she discovered she had XXXY syndrome, a chromosomal variation that contributed to her feminine development and marked her as different in often painful ways. Her school years were shadowed by mockery and exclusion, though moments of comfort came through shared fantasies with her sister Pam, dressing up, playing pretend, and imagining lives beyond their rural surroundings. These small acts of joy and early glimpses of identity would eventually shape a memoir rooted in resilience, self-discovery, and the pursuit of truth.
1982,
Caroline Cossey,
Dutch,
Tula,
Original title: "La prise de robe, itinéraire d'une transsexualité vécue" (Dressing up, route of a lived transsexuality). The book was the first autobiography written by Ovida Delect.
According to Wikipedia, Ovida Delect (1926-1996) was a French poet, politician, and member of the French resistance during the Second World War. In February 1944 she was arrested by the Gestapo for being a member of the National Front, a movement created by the French Communist Party (PCF). She was tortured and deported to a German concentration camp.
After the war, she finished her university education and became a writer. In 1952, she met her future wife Huguette, a kindergarten teacher from Sarthe. They had a son, Jean-Noel. In 1953, Ovida read about the transition of Christine Jorgensen in the press and recognized the similarity between their lives. At the beginning of the 1960s, Delect, under her birth name Jean-Pierre Voidies, became mayor of Freneuse, a small town in Île-de-France. She transitioned socially into a female at the age of 55 and continued to live with Huguette Voidies, her wife, and their son in Saint Pierre Alizay. She died on 9 October 1996.
1982,
French,
Ovida Delect,
Full title: "The Gender Trap: The moving autobiography of Chris & Cathy, the first transexual parents" by Chris Johnson and Cathy Brown, with Wendy Nelson
The book presents the story of the first British transgender couple, Christopher Brown, formerly Anne Johnson, and Cathy Browne, formerly Eugene Brown, from Handsworth, Birmingham. Both of them transitioned after their daughter was born.
I found one article about them in the Digital Transgender Archive portal: "Cathy was born Eugene in Belfast. Her parents were travelers, her father in and out of jail. At 14, she was placed in Borstal for constant truanting. At borstal, she had her first experience of homosexuality and rejected it. Throughout her childhood, she felt 'different'. She dressed in women's clothes. She disliked the idea of heterosexual relationships in which she took the male role but neither was she attracted to men."
1982,
Cathy Brown,
Chris Johnson,
England,
English,
UK,
Full title: "April Ashley's Odyssey" by Duncan Fallowell and April Ashley.
It was the first biography of April Ashley, written by Duncan Fallowell and April Ashley herself. April Ashley (1935–2021) was an English model, actress, cabaret artist, and celebrity. Outed as a transgender woman by The Sunday People newspaper in 1961, she was one of the earliest British people known to have undergone gender reassignment surgery.
After a short episode in the Merchant Navy, she started cross-dressing and she moved to Paris in the late 1950s, using the name Toni April. She joined the entertainer Coccinelle in the cast of the famous drag cabaret at the Caroussel Theatre.
At the age of 25, she underwent gender reassignment surgery in 1960, performed in Casablanca, Morocco, by Georges Burou. After returning to Britain, she started using the name April Ashley and became a successful fashion model, appearing in many fashion magazines.
1982,
April Ashley,
Coccinelle,
Duncan Fallowell,
English,
Full title: "Tula: I am a Woman" by Caroline Cossey.
Tula: I Am a Woman is the first memoir by Caroline Cossey, the British model and actress better known by her professional name Tula. Published in 1981, the book offers an unprecedented and deeply personal insight into the life of a transgender woman navigating the complexities of identity, society, and fame at a time when transgender issues were almost entirely taboo.
Caroline Cossey was born on August 31, 1954, in Brooke, Norfolk, assigned male at birth but possessing an intersex variation known as XXXY syndrome, an aspect she was unaware of until adulthood. This condition contributed to her distinctly feminine appearance during puberty, a source of both inner conflict and external bullying, which she recalls candidly in her memoir. Growing up, Caroline endured a difficult childhood filled with confusion and torment, but found solace in her close relationship with her sister Pam, with whom she shared moments of dressing up in their mother’s clothes. These early experiences shaped the foundation for the story she tells in Tula: I Am a Woman, a story of courage, resilience, and self-discovery.
1982,
Caroline Cossey,
English,
Tula,
UK,
