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: "Das Geschlecht der Lüge: Ein Tagebuch" (Diary of a male bride) by Walter Homann. The first edition of the book was published in 1907. In 1919 the book was republished as "Das Geschlecht der Lüge" (The Gender of Lies). It was also reprinted in 1996 and 2010.
In his diary, the "blond Dori" describes the stages of his unusual life. For a long time, it was a mystery to him why some men tried so hard for his friendship, while others contemptuously called him a whore. In all his innocence and naivety, he does not understand that his self-evident effeminate behavior makes him suspicious in the eyes of others. After he decides to put on the clothes of the opposite sex, he experiences a rapid social rise, which, however, ends in fiasco.
The diary reflects the author Walter Homann's (1887-1918) own experiences, but also deals with the fate of the "Comtesse Dina Alma de Paradeda" (photo), which Magnus Hirschfeld cites as a prime example of the "special sexual type" of the transvestite.
1907,
1919,
1996,
2010,
German,
Walter Homann,
Original title: "Anak kehidupan - kisah sejati perjalanan hidup ratu waria tingkat dunia Chenny Han: anak manusia yang terlahir sebagai lelaki menjalani kehidupan sebagaimana perempuan" (Child of life - The true story of the life journey of world-class drag queen Chenny Han: a human child who was born as a man lives life like a woman) by Isye Soentoro.
The book is a biography of Chenny Han, b. 1963, an Indonesian pre-operative transsexual woman. Chenny Han is a successful bridal and beauty entrepreneur. “I know how it feels to be different. Yet, by focusing on our talents and by continuously improving our skills and never stop learning, we can gain people’s trust and appreciation as the key to successful business."
She also added: “I started my business from only eight wedding dresses for rent. To attract more customers, I gave free make-up to customers who rented their wedding dresses from me. Start from small as great things always start small.” She built her beauty business for 20 years and she is now a well-known bridal designer, make-up artist and author. She owns a bridal Chenny House and three beauty schools in Jakarta, Semarang, and Surabaya.
1996,
Chenny Han,
Indonesian,
Isye Soentoro,
Full title: "Transgender Warriors: Making History from Joan of Arc to Dennis Rodman" by Leslie Feinberg.
"This groundbreaking book - far ahead of its time when first published in 1996 and still galvanizing today—interweaves history, memoir, and gender studies to show that transgender people, far from being a modern phenomenon, have always existed and have exerted their influence throughout history.
Leslie Feinberg - hirself a lifelong transgender revolutionary - reveals the origin of the check-one-box-only gender system and shows how zie found empowerment in the lives of transgender warriors around the world, from the Two Spirits of the Americas to the many genders of India, from the trans shamans of East Asia to the gender-bending Queen Nzinga of Angola, from Joan of Arc to Marsha P. Johnson and beyond."
1996,
English,
Leslie Feinberg,
Marsha P. Johnson,
Full title: "Counseling in Genderland: A Guide for You and Your Transgendered Client" by Neila Miller.
"Those in the mental health field who have discovered gender confusion in their clients often have no background or experience in addressing it. It is like Alice's venture into Wonderland, with its own language, rules, ethics, reasoning, and poetry."
"This book is the first guide written for counselors of every description, plus interested laypersons, which gives a practical map in readable language, for making one's way in this foreign terrain. Neila Miller has been working and playing with crossgendered persons for half of her twenty-eight years as a humanistic counselor/educator."
1996,
English,
Neila Miller,
Original title: "28-28" by Barbra A. Bergstrom. The book was also published in 1996.
I came across this book while surfing through the vast library records of The University of Michigan Library. Unfortunately, it is impossible to find any additional information about the book on the Internet.
"A truthful biography about a sex re-assignment patient which includes the 1st 28 years he lived as a male and the next 28 years as a legal female. Pros and cons of the procedure. Hindsight being 20/20, given a chance, would she go through it all again?"
1996,
Barbra A. Bergstrom,
English,
Full title: "Male Femaling: A grounded theory approach to cross-dressing and sex-changing" by Richard Ekins.
"The glamour of transvestite fashion is the epitome of 90s style, but the significance of cross-dressing and sex-changing goes much deeper than the annals of fashion. Ekins vividly details the innermost desires and the varied practices of males who wear the clothes of women for the pleasure it gives them (cross-dressers), or who wish to change sex and are actively going about it (sex-changers). This unique and fascinating book transforms an area of study previously dominated by clinical models to look instead at cross-dressing and sex-changing as a highly variable social process. Giving precedence to the processual and emergent nature of much cross-dressing and sex-changing phenomena, the book traces the phased femaling career path of the 'male femaler' from 'beginning femaling' through to 'consolidating femaling'."
1996,
English,
Richard Ekins,
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: "Princesa - Ein Stricherleben" (Princesa - A hustler's life) 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.
1996,
Fernanda Farias de Albuquerque,
German,
Full title: "The Unsinkable Bambi Lake: A Fairy Tale Containing the Dish on Cockettes, Punks, and Angels". The book was published in 1996 and republished in 2017.
"An intimate account of one individual's evolution from innocent, suburban Johnny Purcell in the '60s into fabulous, infamous Bambi Lake. From a fantasy filled childhood to San Francisco's queer salad days in the '70s absolutely nothing is off-topic in this dramatic, revealing memoir. With new photos and an Epilogue: 20 Years Later.
Author and infamous chanteuse Bambi Lake has been the subject of a documentary (“Sticks & Stones”), a ballad revival (“Golden Age of Hustlers”), and has inspired those who have followed in the decades since her first appearance with The Cockettes in the early 1970s."
1996,
Bambi Lake,
English,
Original title: "La Vocation d'être femme: itineraire d'une transsexualité vécue" (The Vocation to be a woman: itinerary of a lived transsexuality) by Ovida Delect.
"It starts with a kid who has a kid's body and the audacity of a hero. It continues with a sixteen-year-old boy who knows he is a girl, who has strong convictions and freedom in mind. Then the war of 1940 shakes the world and the teenager who dresses as a girl in the secrecy of closed rooms, finds himself facing the Gestapo. Rather strange fate for the woman, born a man, who will spend her life simply saying: "I am not who you believe".
"At the same time, artist, fighter, teacher, and mayor, in the midst of the worst torments, in torture, the concentration camp, as well as after, in normal life, the unifying bond, the carrier, the deep substance that makes it possible to take everything, the atrocious suffering as well as the male disguise, it is poetry."
1996,
French,
Ovida Delect,
Original title: "Princesa - Fernanda Farías de Albuquerque" (Princess) by Fernanda Farias of 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.
1996,
Fernanda Farias of Albuquerque,
Spanish,
Full title: "Orlando's Sleep: An Autobiography of Gender" by Jennifer Spry.
"This is an inspiring story of courage and perseverance toward the hardest goal of all - self-acceptance. As a child, Spry cherished the moments when he was left alone at home so he could dress up in his mother's clothes.
In adolescence, he tried to prove his manhood by competitive sailing and heavy drinking. When even marriage and fatherhood failed to make a man of him, John began the long journey towards recognition of herself as Jennifer, a woman and a lesbian."
"This autobiography by Jennifer Spry explores the complex issues of gender identity, beginning with a boyhood in Australia, through marriage, and her coming out as Jennifer, a transgendered lesbian."
1996,
Australia,
English,
Jennifer Spry,
Original title: "Vom Supermann zur super Frau" (From super man to super woman) by Simone-Yvonne von Budzyn.
Simone-Yvonne von Budzyn was born on 31 March 1939 in Berlin-Friedenau as a boy.
After the stillbirth of a boy a year earlier, the mother longingly wished for a living son. A midwife was appointed for the upcoming home birth. She soon exclaimed happily: "It has a lily of the valley, it has a lily of the valley!"
But what meant happiness and the fulfillment of all dreams for the mother was a trauma for Wolfgang, as the child was now called. Even as a small child, Simone felt like a girl and condemned, even hated, the male genitals.
The father, however, wanted to turn the weak son into a real man and a successful athlete. Wolfgang obeyed and suffered. – Simone took on this ordeal as Wolfgang, because she wanted to suppress and hide her own inner urges and desires for her femininity.
1996,
German,
Simone-Yvonne von Budzyn,
Full title: "Mirrors: Portrait of a Lesbian Transsexual" by Geri Nettick and Beth Elliott.
"The alternately heartbreaking and empowering story of one woman's long road to full selfhood. Born a male, Geri Nettick knew something just didn't fit. And even after coming to terms with her own gender dysphoria, and taking steps to correct it, she still fought to be accepted by the lesbian feminist community to which she felt she belonged. A fascinating, true tale of struggle and discovery."
"Beth Elliott is a San Francisco Bay Area-born writer, musician and activist focused on women's rights issues. In the early 1970s, she served as vice-president of the San Francisco chapter of the Daughters of Bilitis, served on the board of directors of the California Committee for Sexual Law Reform, and was a founding member of the Alice B. Toklas Memorial Democratic Club."
1996,
Beth Elliott,
English,
Geri Nettick,
Full title: "Hiding My Candy: The Autobiography of the Grand Empress of Savannah" by The Lady Chablis and Theodore Bouloukos.
"Born Benjamin Edward Knox in Quincy, Florida, "The Doll" always knew she was different. At a Tallahassee club, in her teens, she found the drag mother who would set her on the path to stardom. Before long, The Lady Chablis had a headline drag act replete with trademark saucy wit, down-home wisdom, and, of course, breasts. The rest is "Miss Thang" history..."
According to Wikipedia, The Lady Chablis (1957-2016), also known as The Grand Empress and The Doll, was an American actress, author, and transgender club performer. Through exposure in the bestselling nonfiction book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, and its 1997 film adaptation, she became one of the first trans performers to be introduced to a wide audience.
1996,
Drag queen,
English,
The Lady Chablis,
