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: "Det Stof Drømme er Gjort af: En bog om transvestitter og kønsroller" (The Drug Dreams Are Made By: A Book About Transvestites and Gender Roles) by Lisbeth Holten.
"Photographic portrait collection consisting of black and white photographs of transgender women. For the most part, their maiden names are listed and for some of them, there is an accompanying text about them.
There are portraits of: Lise, Otte and Susanne, who are married and trans men and trans women, respectively. Susanne, Michelle Fridan. Hanne and wife Sonja. Anette and wife Kettyn Lisen, Lena, Vibeke, Laila, adorning the cover photo. Majorie. Monica. Cecilie. Karin. Conny. Jenny. Iben. Gitte. Marianna. Elsebeth. Alice. Gitte. Sally. Fanny.
Common to all of them is that they were members of the association FPE-NE."
1992,
Danish,
Lisbeth Holten,
Original title: "Ich war ein Mann: Die Lebensgeschichte einer Transsexualuellen" (I Was a Man: The Life Story of a Transsexual) by Alexandra.
Alexandra tells her life with relentless openness in this book. It is the confession of a woman who lived in a male body and who thus became the outsider of a society that rejects everything that goes beyond the framework of the "normal". The harrowing fate of a transsexual who never got a real chance in life. Early on, Alexandra landed in the red light district. To endure the suitors, she took heroin. In order to have the money for the addiction, she stole – again and again until she ended up behind bars. There she was examined. The result: AIDS. A book that is deeply moving.
Original title: "La mia vita scandalosa" (My Scandalous Life).
"You are usually born only once. At least in the course of the same existence... I, on the other hand, was born twice." Thus Giò Stajano begins the story of her first exceptional sixty years, during which she passed from a life certainly not common to another almost unbelievable.
Gioacchino Starace, who was given the name of his paternal grandfather, was born in Sannicola, Puglia, in December 1931. On his mother's side, he is the nephew of Achille Starace, who has just been appointed secretary of the Fascist Party. Childhood is happy and privileged, adolescence is marked by war and the first signs of its "diversity".
1992,
Georges Burou,
Giò Stajano,
Italian,
Original title: "Gib mir Liebeslied: Chansons. Geschichten. Aphorismen" (Give me love song: Songs. Stories. Aphorisms) by Georgette Dee.
She is one of the last of a dying species, oscillates on stage between the sexes, dominates the shrill as well as the soft tones; her aphorisms are loved and feared: Georgette Dee, singer, and actress, the »greatest diva in the country, can do everything, knows everything, feels everything« (Die Zeit).
"Gib mir Liebeslied" brings together for the first time her lyrics about being alone, about desire and desire. They are arranged according to the colours that Georgette Dee associates with the moods of these texts, introduced by bizarre-comic aphorisms. Georgette Dee talks about her lyrical beginnings, her early attempts at acting on a tree in the Lüneburg Heath, her first encounter with her pianist Terry Truck in a kitchen in Brixton, England, about her stage life and, of course, about her lovers.
1992,
Georgette Dee,
German,
The author of the book, Georgina Carol Somerset, (1923–2013), born George Turtle, a transgender woman who claimed to be intersex, was a British dentist and Royal Navy officer. Her first book was published in 1963, she authored it with the name of Georgina Turtle - "Over the Sex Border"."
She was the first openly intersex person in the United Kingdom and the first intersex woman to be married in the Church of England. Her parents never referred to any possible confusion, and Turtle remembered longing to wear pink dresses and always regarded herself as a girl.
She found ways to change for games out of sight of her schoolmates, and was accepted as a man into the navy after the most cursory of medical examinations. After being called up as the war in Europe ended, she served as a surgeon-lieutenant in the Royal Navy until 1948, at which point she established a dental practice in Croydon.
1992,
English,
Georgina Somerset,
Georgina Turtle,
UK,
Original title: "Byłam mężczyzną" (I was a man) by Ada Strzelec.
"I was a man" is the diary of Ada Strzelec, one of the first transgender women in Poland to have undergone gender reassignment surgery. The book is full of dramatic and intimate details from the life of a transgender woman living in times when information about transsexualism was next to nothing.
1992,
Ada Strzelec,
Polish,
Original title: "Frau werden. Von Walter zu Waltraud. Authentischer Bericht einer Transsexuellen" (To become a woman. From Walter to Waltraud. Authentic report of a transsexual)
"In the early 90s, Waldtraud Schiffels was one of the most famous trans women in Germany. In this book, she tells her life story.
This book is a harrowing document of gender conflict and the autobiographical processing of a sex change.
1992,
German,
Waltraud Schiffels,
"Jerry Jennings is not my real name. Neither is Jerri McClain. But in the last few years, I've lived with both names. I've lived as two separate people. I've lived as a man and as a woman. Let me explain. You, or someone in your family, have probably read one of my books. Or perhaps you've seen me interviewed in the magazine sections of such newspapers as the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Examiner, the Honolulu Advertiser, and, yes even the New York Times.
You would probably know my novels - you would if you enjoy a combination of love stories and thrillers. But when you read this book you'll understand why I couldn't use my real name here, or, indeed, use my real name in the two lives that I led. If my real name were known, a number of people would be embarrassed, as you'll soon see. I might lose some credibility as an author - and perhaps a great deal of money in royalties for future book sand columns. (On the other hand, maybe I would become more popular - but who can take the chance?)"
1992,
English,
Jerry/Jerri McClain,
Full title: "Katherine's Diary: The Story of a Transsexual" by Katherine Cummings.
The book was published in 1992 and republished in 2008. In addition, Katherine authored "The Live and Loves of a Transgendered Lesbian Librarian". "In 1986 John Cummings became Katherine Cummings, and a whole life changed. In this painfully honest account of John's transformation into a woman, Katherine tells of years of fantasizing and cross-dressing behind locked doors, of the betrayal felt by her family and the final relief of surgery. Katherine's Diary covers a lifetime of self-discovery and self-destruction told with acerbic wit and crisp observation.
I think that I was irrational, even insane, at the time. My transsexualism had taken hold of me with such obsessive force that I could not concentrate on anything else. There I was, a fifty-year-old professional academic librarian who had desperately wanted to be female ever since memories began."
1992,
2008,
Australia,
English,
Interview,
Katherine Cummings,
Full title: "Memoirs of an Andy Warhol Superstar" by Candy Darling.
"Located at 33 Union Square West in the heart of New York City’s pulsing downtown scene, Andy Warhol’s Factory was an artistic anomaly. Not simply a painter’s studio, it was the center of Warhol’s assembly-line production of films, books, art, and the groundbreaking Interview magazine.
Although Warhol’s first Factory on East 47th Street was known for its space-age silver interior, the Union Square Factory became the heart, brain, eyes, and soul of all things Warhol—and was, famously, the site of the assassination attempt that nearly took his life. It also produced a subculture of Factory denizens known as superstars, a collection of talented and ambitious misfits, the most glamorous and provocative of whom was the transgender pioneer Candy Darling."
1992,
2015,
Candy Darling,
English,
Jeremiah Newton,
This is the Swedish language edition of "Tula: My Story" by Caroline Cossey. The full title: "Mitt liv: den gripande berättelsen av en kvinna som föddes som man" (My Life: The Gripping Story of a Woman Born a Man).
Tula: My Story opens a window into the extraordinary life of Caroline Cossey, a British actress and model widely known by her professional name, Tula. Released in 1991 as a sequel to her 1982 memoir Tula: I Am a Woman, this second installment delves deeper into her experience of living openly as a transgender woman under public scrutiny. At a time when trans narratives were rarely acknowledged in mainstream culture, Cossey’s voice broke through with rare honesty and defiance.
Caroline was born on August 31, 1954, in the rural village of Brooke, Norfolk, and was assigned male at birth. She would later learn she had XXXY syndrome, a chromosomal condition that explained her feminine features during puberty and set her apart in painful, isolating ways. School years were marked by ridicule, but there were pockets of solace, especially in the imaginative games she shared with her sister Pam, dressing up and dreaming beyond their small-town world. These moments of escape and early self-awareness became the roots of a powerful memoir about courage, transformation, and the search for authenticity.
1992,
Caroline Cossey,
Swedish,
Tula,
This is the Danish language edition of "Tula: My Story" by Caroline Cossey.
Tula: My Story invites readers into the remarkable journey of Caroline Cossey, a British model and actress best known by her stage name, Tula. Published in 1991, the book serves as a continuation of her earlier memoir, Tula: I Am a Woman (1982). This follow-up work breaks new ground by candidly exploring what it meant to live as a transgender woman in the spotlight. At a time when trans experiences were largely invisible in mainstream discourse, Cossey’s story emerged as a powerful and pioneering narrative.
Born on August 31, 1954, in Brooke, a small village in Norfolk, Caroline was assigned male at birth and later discovered she had XXXY syndrome, an intersex variation that contributed to her feminine appearance during adolescence. The condition, unknown to her for years, made her the subject of cruel teasing and deepened her sense of isolation. Despite these challenges, her childhood was not without moments of comfort, especially those shared with her sister Pam, who joined her in dressing up and imagining other lives. These early glimpses of self-expression would later evolve into the memoir’s core: a story of inner strength, identity, and the long path to becoming oneself.
1992,
Caroline Cossey,
Danish,
Tula,
"Pamiętnik opata de Choisy przebranego za kobietę" is the Polish language edition of "Mémoires de l'abbé de Choisy habillé en femme" by Francois Timoleon de Choisy.
The first edition of the memoirs was published in ... 1736. Yes, it is not a joke. Since then, the memoirs have been published many times in many languages. Let me quote the introduction from Goodreads: "By a whim of his mother, Francois Timoleon de Choisy - better known as the Abbé de Choisy - was dressed as a girl until the age of 18.
After a short spell in male attire he became, by all accounts, the classic transvestite - a male heterosexual who never attempted to disguise his biological sex while going about in public in full female attire. Choisy's fascination with feminine accouterments made him something of an expert on women's fashions, and prominent society women even brought their daughters to him for advice.
1992,
François-Timoléon De Choisy,
Polish,
