A random collection of over 2078 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: "Quando eu passo batom me embriago" (When I put on lipstick I get drunk) by Ruddy Pinho.
"Quando eu passo batom me embriago" is the third book by Ruddy (Ruddy Pinho). In that period the author did not yet recognize herself as a woman, nor did she bring this issue explicitly to her writing, which will only occur after the publication of her autobiography, Liberdade ainda que profana (1998).
Ruddy Pinho, also known as “A Maravilhosa”, was a celebrated transgender hairdresser from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She was known for her work with famous clients, including Susana Vieira and Marilia Pêra. Ruddy Pinho made a significant contribution to the hairdressing industry, including creating the “lioness cut” that marked the career of singer Simone Bittencourt and was widely copied in the 1980s.
1983,
Brazil,
Portuguese,
Ruddy Pinho,
Full title: "Hormones and Me: The complete answer book for the TV or TS who contemplates taking female hormones" by Sally Anne Douglas. The book is the first Do-It-Yourself guide on feminization hormones.
In "Doctors Who?: Radical lessons from the history of DIY transition" Jules Gill-Peterson writes: "In a 1971 column for the newsletter New Trends, Sally Ann Douglas, a trans woman embedded in an especially well-connected social network, remarked that “everywhere I go these days, I bump into gals who seem to be getting hormones from somewhere” - somewhere other than a doctor’s office, that is. Calling it a trend, she wrote that “most of them seem to be pursuing a ‘do-it-yourself’ program of experimentation with various formulations” of estrogen on the market. Trans women often wrote into such newsletters looking for advice on this subject, but Douglas, like many of her peers, dismissed DIY approaches as reflecting a lack of courage - being too “shy” to go to a doctor - rather than problems of finances and gatekeeping."
1983,
English,
Sally Anne Douglas,
Original title: "Kobieta w męskim ciele" (A woman in a man's body) by Wanda Falkowska.
The author presents the story of Elżbieta Lubarczyk (born Eligiusz in the mid-1940s in Lower Silesia in Polanf), one of the first transgender women to have changed their gender in Poland. She did it in the late 70s of the twentieth century.
Her story can be easily associated with Lili Elbe. "Eligius" and "Einar" are artists and painters. They have relationships with women. The former with two, with whom he marries and has two children - in this case, it distinguishes him from Einar. In addition, Eligiusz's wives are not painters. Both abandon painting when they are seriously considering turning into women.
1983,
Polish,
Wanda Falkowska,
Full title: "Triple Jeopardy: The Autobiography of Angela Lynn Douglas" by Angela Douglas.
"The autobiography of transgender activist Angela Douglas. Born in 1943, Angela Lynn Douglas came out and began to live as a woman in 1969. She started her career as an underground writer for the Los Angeles Free Press that same year and wrote hundreds of articles and columns for The Berkeley Barb, The Advocate and Bay Area Reporter (both gay publications), and Everywoman (a woman’s paper). Throughout her youth, she performed with a number of bands across the U.S. and (during her later school years) Tokyo, Japan, including “The Casinos”, “The Red Devils”, “The Nomads”, “The Charades”, “The Sovereigns”, and “Euphoria”."
1983,
Angela Lynn Douglas,
English,
USA,
Full title: "Les Amies de Place Blanche" by Christer Strömholm.
The book was published in 1983 and republished in 2012. Les Amies focuses on the transsexual community around the Place Blanche district of Paris in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The book established Christer Strömholm's reputation as one of the leading photographers of the twentieth century.
The 2012 edition of the book includes the original essays by Strömholm and publisher Johan Ehrenberg as well as newly commissioned texts by Jackie and Nana, two of the women who feature in many photographs in the book. The book concludes with a thirty-two-page notebook of unpublished letters, papers, and contact sheets."
1983,
Christer Strömholm,
English,
French,
Original title: "Alain, transsexuelle" (Alain, transsexual woman) by Inge Stephens.
Just five years old, Alain is faced with the total incomprehension of those who surround him. At about ten years old, he feels irresistibly attracted to women's clothing. In
adolescence, he discovers the breasts he needs to hide. He finds it difficult to differentiate between the two sexes.
Much later, in adulthood, after having experienced many difficulties in the various jobs which he successively occupies, he becomes aware of a troubling reality: he feels like a woman and moreover his anatomy partly designates it as such.
1983,
French,
Inge Stephens,
Original title: "Second Serve: The Renée Richards Story" by Renée Richards.
The best review of the book is available on the Transascity website. Let me quote it: "Overall Second Serve is an interesting historical read, and I think the reader learns a great amount about a critical transition point for transgender people in history – the turbulent late 1960’s through 1970’s. Unfortunately, the book also casts Richards as an early heroic transgender warrior – a title she is deserving of, although it’s tainted by her recent comments on transgender athletes."
The book served as the basis for the film Second Serve, a 1986 American made-for-television biographical film starring Vanessa Redgrave.
1983,
English,
Renée Richards,
Original title: "Im falschen Körper gefangen: Als Mann hieß sie Robert, als Frau heißt er Yvonne" (Trapped in the wrong body: As a man he was called Robert, as a woman she was called Yvonne) by Christa Geibel.
Christa Geibel’s book Im falschen Körper gefangen: Als Mann hieß sie Robert, als Frau heißt er Yvonne is a deeply personal and striking account of the life of a trans woman navigating the rigid, often cruel societal expectations of the late 20th-century Federal Republic of Germany. Reading it today, decades after its first publication, one immediately senses the historical context, the fear, shame, and isolation experienced by people who were forced to live in bodies that did not align with their true identities. The book is a testimony to the human struggle for authenticity in a society that offered little understanding, almost no institutional support, and often outright hostility toward trans individuals. Yvonne’s story begins with her life as Robert, the external male persona that society demanded, and the intense inner conflict that arose from the impossibility of reconciling her outward appearance with her internal sense of self. Geibel captures not only the psychological turmoil of living as a man while feeling unmistakably female but also the societal pressures that amplified that inner conflict: judgment, alienation, and the constant risk of exposure in a culture unprepared to accept trans identities.
1983,
Christa Geibel,
German,
Original title: "Je serai elle, mon odyssée transsexuelle" (I will be her, my transsexual odyssey) by Sylviane Dullak. The book was published in 1983 and republished in 1984.
"Look at these two faces.
On the left, a man is negative.
On the right, a woman is positive.
Well, it's one and the same person, because doctor Sylvain Dullak became Sylviane Dullak, a woman doctor!"
"This extraordinary story, in the sense of Edgar Poe, is also the tragedy of a being who suffers, despairs and seeks by all means to get out of the prison of this human body in which she is imprisoned. Because Sylvain is a woman with a man's body who wants to become what he has always been: SHE... Many of us may have a reaction of rejection on this taboo subject of transsexuality, as on that of incest. This cannot be the case with this exemplary, sincere story, written not only by the actor of this great mutation but also by the doctor and psychologist spectator, who looks down on the experience he is living."
1983,
French,
Sylviane Dullak,
Full title: "Ich, Sandy: Erfahrungen mit der Transidentität - Eine Autobiografie"
The book does not have any reviews but one that I found on Amazon, written by someone under the name of J. D. Radcliffe: "As to the book itself: it has an ugly dog of a title, but it must have satisfied both scribe Bakker and first-person narrator Ron Rigsbee (who died in 2019). There are some very nice photographs of Ron as a young would-be actor in New York, and then as an attractive and presentable young woman named Susan Fontaine. instead of a performing career, Susan migrated to Las Vegas where she developed a huge gambling jones and wound up working as a professional casino card dealer.
There's a photo of her dealing during the World Series of Poker, with Nick the Greek looking on. That was the high point of Susan/Ron's career. Soon after she had some kind of breakdown and sought relief in a rather fundie strain of Christianity. This led her to a jolly fellow from New Orleans named Perry Desmond, who himself had gone partway through a sex change before having his own come-to-Jesus moment. Perry persuaded Susan to become Ron again, to put on a suit and tie, have the breast implants out (couldn't do much about the other thing), and preach to the world. Why she couldn't just Preach the Lord as Susan was never explained, but I gather Susan was seen as "deception"—thus the title.
1983,
Dorothy Bakker,
English,
Ron Rigsbee,
Susan Fontaine,
