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: "Vom Fresko zum Straps: Ein Leben" (From fresco to suspenders: One life.) by Petra Dorén.
"I have known Petra Dorén from the stage for about fifteen years and began to work as a journalist about her in 1992. During our interviews for various journal publications, we discovered similarities. The idea for this book was born in 1993 during a visit to the theatre to see Brecht's Threepenny Opera. Helen Vita as buccaneer Jenny broke the ice: Petra told me about her cabaret colleague with whom I had an interview appointment for the next day.
"You could write a book about my life. I didn't tell you everything for your articles," Petra said to me as she drove me home in her ochre-yellow Opel. Petra, as Peter, wore a wide-brimmed Borsalino, braked at the traffic lights and turned towards me with a huge bang: "Do you want to write it?" — I wanted. An exciting time began: endless interviews in Petra's gold cave, her world's best potato pancakes at half past four at night, travel companions to Hamburg and on tour ... I became Petra's shadow for a year and a half. She has now told me almost everything about her life. Almost everything — because that's how well I know her by now: Petra Dorén still keeps a few bangers up her sleeve! - Michael Meissner"
1994,
Crossdressing,
German,
Petra Dorén,
""I'll tell you... I'm not a woman", confesses Kim Harlow in this collaborative autobiography, a project with photographer Bettina Rheims. Kim was a model of Bettina Rheims in her book Modern Lovers and the central figure in Les Espionnes, and she was born a man. She died as a woman in Paris in 1992 from AIDS. This book is with Kim, but also by Kim. She had started writing about her life and why and how she decided to become a woman."
"Harlow was unable to finish her story. Her last lines are about a friend of hers who fell to AIDS. And it was that illness that cut short this work, her work. She entrusted those close to her to finish, fully aware that her days were numbered. We put together her notes, tape-recorded and written down. Not a word was crossed out in her chapters, written in a single, incisive outpouring."
1994,
Bettina Rheims,
English,
Kim Harlow,
"La persistencia de la memoria: Una biografía personal de Salvador Dalí" is the Spanish language edition of "Persistence of Memory: A Personal Biography of Salvador Dali", an American re-edition of "Le Dalí d'Amanda" (Amanda's Dalí).
Amanda Lear (born 1939) is a French singer, television celebrity, actress, and model, known for her professional career as a fashion model in the mid-1960s and being a muse of Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. The book tells about her relationship with Salvador Dalí and presents detailed insights into the 15 years of their relationship.
According to Wikipedia, Amanda's transgender background was confirmed by Salvador Dalí himself, and other well-known artists that used to know Lear earlier in her life. For example, April Ashley, a transgender icon and model, claimed that in the 1950s and early 1960s, Lear, whose birth name she stated was "Alain Tap", had worked with her in the Parisian transgender revues Madame Arthur and Le Carrousel. In her book April Ashley's Odyssey, Ashley recalls Lear performing drag acts under the stage name "Peki d'Oslo".
1994,
Amanda Lear,
April Ashley,
Georges Burou,
Mexico,
Romy Haag,
Spanish,
Original title: "Πρινσέζα" (Princess) by Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque and Maurizio Jannelli. The book is the Greek language edition of "Princesa" published in Italian in 1994.
According to Wikipedia, Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque (1963–2000), known as Princesa, was a Brazilian transgender woman. Born in the Brazilian countryside, she grew up without her father in a family with economic difficulties. At the age of seven, she is the victim of sexual abuse and later she leaves home. After a brief period as a kitchen assistant, she begins to prostitute herself in the big Brazilian cities, adopting the name of Guerra Princesa.
In 1988, after a brief stay in Spain, she moves to Italy. She begins to sell her body on the streets of Milan and becomes addicted to heroin. In 1990, she was arrested on charges of attempted murder of another call girl. In prison, she discovers that she has the AIDS virus.
1994,
Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque,
Greek,
"Stephanie z muže ženou: Autobiografie transsexuála" (Stephanie From Male to Female: The Autobiography of a Transsexual) is the Czech language edition of "Stephanie: A Girl in a Million" (1988) by Stephanie Anne Lloyd.
"This is Stephanie’s autobiography. It tells the story of Stephanie Anne Lloyd, the founder of Transformation and one of the first openly transgender women to speak out about the struggles and achievements of someone who is openly transgender.
At the age of 68, I have lived just over 50% of my life as a woman and the other half as a man. If women knew how much easier it is for men I am sure there would be a revolution. Hopefully, this very personal and honest account will give a unique perspective of the real differences between the sexes and also make the path of those who follow in my footsteps somewhat easier in these more enlightened times.
1994,
Czech,
Stephanie Anne Booth,
Stephanie Anne Lloyd,
Full title: "Gender Outlaw: On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us" by Kate Bornstein. The revised edition of the book was published in 2016.
"Gender Outlaw is the work of a woman who has been through some changes--a former heterosexual male, a one-time Scientologist, and IBM salesperson, now a lesbian woman writer and actress who makes regular rounds on the TV (so to speak) talk shows.
In her book, Bornstein covers the "mechanics" of her surgery, everything you've always wanted to know about gender (but were too confused to ask) addresses the place and politics of the transgendered and interrogates the questions of those who give the subject little thought, creating questions of her own."
1994,
English,
Interview,
Kate Bornstein,
USA,
Original title: "Les chevaux de frise couraient sur l'hippodrome" (The Frisian horses ran on the hippodrome). The book was the first autobiography written by Ovida Delect.
A transsexual teenager, under the Nazi occupation, brought up in a religious college for boys, in Caen, questions the conditions she has to undergo... Autobiography of a former deportee-resistant, tortured at the age of 17 years old, founder of a youth resistance group. She contrasts the concrete or conceptual hells with a living infinity of flowers, dresses, and stars.
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.
1994,
French,
Ovida Delect,
Original title: "Appelez-Moi Gina" (Call me Gina) by Georgine Noël.
He or she? He then She? Changing sex, being born a man and becoming a woman? Or finally be what we have always been? Here is the story of the most amazing adventures experienced. On April 25, 1975, Doctor Georges Noël woke up in his hospital bed knowing that this was the end of a long and painful journey. From now on there is only Georgine Noël, Gina for close friends. But what terrible ordeals she had to pass!
When nature, family, and society have decreed otherwise, what to do with the fundamental mismatch between one's deepest drives and the gender of one's birth which one knows is not one's? And especially when you come from a local family, steeped in local tradition deep in the Belgian countryside. What to do if not return to solitude, and marginalization but also the struggle, desperate and courageous, to restore the truth of one's being, to restore harmony between one's body and one's mind.
1994,
Belgium,
French,
Georgine Noël,
Full title: "Just Julia: The Story of an Extraordinary Woman" by Julia Grant. Her first biography "George and Julia" was published in 1980.
"In 1981 George Roberts underwent a sex-change operation and became Julia Grant, but after emergency treatment things started to go drastically wrong. Beginning with a traumatic childhood of abuse, prostitution and crime, culminating in a series of prison sentences, and then following the futile attempts to come to terms with a male body, this book goes beyond the New English Library publication "George and Julia", and recounts what happened after the unsuccessful operation.
Julia tells how her theatrical career took off, and then was destroyed; how she left Britain for Amsterdam; and how she finally returned to the stage in a cabaret act, "The Bitch is Back". The book highlights the difficulties faced by transsexuals in Britain, and includes lists of useful addresses and help-lines."
"The operation was broadcast on television, making Julia Britain's most
famous transexual. But that was only half the story. Now, with a new series of films and chis autobiography, Julia tells the whole truth. about life before and after surgery. In 1980 George
Roberts took the biggest step of his life. He became Julia Grant."
1994,
English,
Julia Grant,
UK,
"Ik ben mijn eigen vrouw: Een leven" (I am my own wife: A life) is the Dutch language edition of "Ich bin meine eigene Frau" (1992) by Charlotte von Mahlsdorf.
"A soft-spoken transvestite wanting nothing more than to live as a hausfrau, Charlotte von Mahlsdorf instead was caught up in the most harrowing dramas of 20th century Europe, surviving both the Nazis and the Communists.
I Am My Own Wife is her exquisitely written autobiography where she reveals her lifelong pursuit of sexual liberty. The memoirs of a transvestite Berliner, the story of the wonderful Gründerzeit museum, a look at German culture from the point of view of a permanent outsider, Charlotte’s tale, like her life, is a surprising and provocative weave of sex, politics, and history."
1994,
Charlotte von Mahlsdorf,
Crossdressing,
Dutch,
Original title: "Messer im Traum: Transsexualuelle in Deutschland" (Knife in a dream: Transsexuals in Germany) by Holde-Barbara Ulrich.
"The book presents transsexual life stories with texts and photos, it was published in 1994 by Konkursbuch-Verlag.
The author Holde-Barbara Ulrich and the photographer Thomas Karsten portray 13 transsexual people, 10 trans women and 3 trans men, aged 24 to 64 years on almost 170 pages.
In the foreword, we can read:
We have chosen thirteen of the exciting life stories in words and pictures for the volume because we believe that they are exemplary for many others in their almost unbearable injuries, their insane power of hope, their blissful transformations, their gender euphoria - their simple longing for love and life. It is our wish that the portraits of these people may help those affected to find their way out of their own diaspora. We also hope to be able to persuade the seemingly "normal" to help transsexual people and all those who are different to live with understanding and encouragement."
1994,
German,
Holde-Barbara Ulrich,
"He Did It Her Way: Carlotta, Legend of Les Girls" by Carlotta and James Cockington is the first biography of Carlotta. The second biography "Carlotta: I'm Not That Kind of Girl" was published in 2003.
"For 26 years from 1963, Carlotta was the undisputed Queen of Kings Cross - the legend of Les Girls, a landmark theatre restaurant where all the women on stage were really drag queens. This is a fascinating and often hilarious journey into her world as a performer and transexual who started life as a Balmain boy and went on to have one of the first sex change operations in Australia."
According to Wikipedia, Carlotta, born Carol Byron in 1943, is a transgender Australian cabaret performer and television personality, known for being an original cast member of the long-running Sydney-based male revue Les Girls cabaret show.
1994,
Australia,
Carlotta,
English,
James Cockington,
Original title: "Det gyldne menneske" (The Golden Man) bt Regitze Falk.
"Under the name Regitze Falk, Toni Mygdal-Meyer wrote the book about what it was like at the age of 40 to openly step out into the world as a transvestite and about living an everyday life as a lesbian husband with a wife and daughter.
Regitze Falk steps out into the world – fully clothed and with perfect make-up – at forty-some. Until then, she wore only men's clothing and a male name. She is married and the father of a daughter and feels good about it.
Her book about this late birth is a step-by-step, almost day-by-day description of what it's like to come out of the closet as a transvestite.
The first trip to the city in big scrub, the first coming out to family, friends, and acquaintances. The first run gauntlet – on high unsafe heels – between truck drivers on the Storebælt ferry. All the many different wild and mad episodes, the misunderstandings, the comedy and the good surprises. Perhaps especially the latter, because Regitze Falk's book is neither fierce defense nor attack.
1994,
Danish,
Regitze Falk,
Original title: "Princesa" (Princess) by Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque and Maurizio Jannelli. The was published in 1994 and republished in the Italian language in 1997.
According to Wikipedia, Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque (1963–2000), known as Princesa, was a Brazilian transgender woman. Born in the Brazilian countryside, she grew up without her father in a family with economic difficulties. At the age of seven, she is the victim of sexual abuse and later she leaves home. After a brief period as a kitchen assistant, she begins to prostitute herself in the big Brazilian cities, adopting the name of Guerra Princesa.
1994,
Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque,
Italian,
Full title: "My Husband Wears My Clothes: Crossdressing from the Perspective of a Wife" by Peggy J. Rudd. The book was published in 1994 and republished in 2003.
"My Husband Wears My Clothes is the first book to be written by the wife of a crossdresser. "Clothes don't make the man" has a new meaning. Dr. Rudd addresses many of the questions frequently asked by the spouses, families, and friends of men who cross gender lines and candidly explores the related emotions that range from frustration to elation."
"The publication has become the number one book on the unique topic of crossdressing and transgendered relationships. The author, Dr. Peggy Rudd, describes both the positives and many of the concerns and problems faced by wives and partners of crossdressers and transgendered individuals and suggests solutions. This book is a "must read" for anyone in a transgendered relationship or anyone interested in the phenomenon of men and women who cross gender lines. "
1994,
English,
Peggy J. Rudd,
"L'Amant Dalí: Ma vie avec Salvador Dalí" (The Lover Dalí: My life with Salvador Dalí) is another book by Amandra Lear, following her first book "Le Dalí d'Amanda" (Amanda's Dalí).
Amanda Lear (born 1939) is a French singer, television celebrity, actress, and model, known for her professional career as a fashion model in the mid-1960s and being a muse of Spanish surrealist painter Salvador Dalí. The book tells about her relationship with Salvador Dalí and presents detailed insights into the 15 years of their relationship.
According to Wikipedia, Amanda's transgender background was confirmed by Salvador Dalí himself, and other well-known artists that used to know Lear earlier in her life. For example, April Ashley, a transgender icon and model, claimed that in the 1950s and early 1960s, Lear, whose birth name she stated was "Alain Tap", had worked with her in the Parisian transgender revues Madame Arthur and Le Carrousel. In her book April Ashley's Odyssey, Ashley recalls Lear performing drag acts under the stage name "Peki d'Oslo".
1994,
Amanda Lear,
April Ashley,
French,
Georges Burou,
Romy Haag,
Full title: "Drag: A History of Female Impersonation on the Stage" by Roger Baker.
I found the following review by Mark Edward: "This book is a good read overall. The book is a historical journey of drag and written in a specific era (the 1960s), which the reader needs to be mindful of, especially on the writings of trans and drag (much needed updating on this).
Although the text may be deemed old it still offers some value in terms of historical context and covers the shifting (albeit limited) landscapes of drag practices and performers. It is a valid touchstone for drag scholars and those with an interest in drag and performance."
The book was re-published in 1994 under the new title: "Drag: A History of Female Impersonation in the Performing Arts". "Men have been dressing as women on stage for hundreds of years, dating back to the thirteenth century when the Church forbade the appearance of female actors but condoned that of men and boys disguised as the opposite sex. Forms of transvestism can be traced back to the dawn of theatre and are found in all corners of the world, notably in China and Japan."
"In recent years, of course, drag has witnessed a dramatic and widespread revival. Newsday recently observed people are talking about all those fabulous heterosexual film idols who now can't seem to wait to get tarted up in drag and do their screen bits as fishnet queens."
1968,
1994,
English,
Roger Baker,
Full title: "The Transvestite Memoirs of the Abbe de Choisy" by Abbé 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.
His increasingly extravagant toilettes and exhibitionist behavior eventually earned him a public rebuke and exile from Paris. This study recounts the scandalous and entertaining escapades for which Choisy is best known today in a light, intimate, and accessible style. These authentic memoirs provide a firsthand account of manners and morals in late 17th-century society as well as remarkably exact portraits of his contemporaries, constituting a remarkable document in the history of transvestism."
1973,
1994,
2007,
English,
François-Timoléon De Choisy,
