library
entries are arranged from newest to oldest, defined by when i wrote the entry and not when i added the book to my library.last updated: december 28, 2022
fiction
The Undaunted
by Alan Hart, entry added december 28, 2022this book has been on my "to purchase" list for nearly 10 years, but went out-of-print in the 1930s. Alan Hart was a radiologist and novelist, and a trans man who transitioned in the early 20th century. he wrote doctor novels that touched on the subjects he was most familiar with; at the time, this genre was pretty popular. i imagine it'd be like watching House or Grey's Anatomy before television for a lot of americans.
anyway, i had found a pdf of this book that i never read (i rarely retain e-books and my eyes glaze over when i try to read them), as well as a single ebay listing for a print copy. unfortunately, said copy was 1) a first edition that 2) included a photograph of alan hart himself and was also 3) inscribed, so there was no fucking way the book would be affordable. it sat at about $300 for years. my partner and i checked up on it periodically to see if the seller lowered the price. if it ever dropped to $100 i probably would have bit the bullet and bid, but it never did to my knowledge. thankfully, the copy i actually own was one published in october of 2022 by a small press specializing in books by authors from washington state, so it cost a paltry $20. my partner pre-ordered it for me as a birthday gift.
enough about the book. the story is, well, one that was written in the 1930s. there isn't a lot of nuance in hart's descriptions of various characters. the main heroic character, richard cameron, gets to monologue at one of the senior doctors for like a solid three pages about why the older doctor sucks, and the other guy just stands there gaping like a moron. of course, cameron is 100% right about everything he says. his peers respect him, unfair senior physicians hate him for no good reason, good senior doctors admire his work and attitude, and ladies love him. cameron just isn't a very interesting main character. however, dr. sandy farquhar, the gay scottish radiologist, makes for a more compelling character in that he feels a little like someone hart would've related to. that's where my real interest lies - in how an explicitly queer character is written about by a queer author living in a time where trans identity was medicalized to hell and back. (in fact, hart reasoned with the doctor who provided his hysterectomy that someone like hart should not be allowed to reproduce for eugenics reasons. whatever you need to get that snip, i guess!)
so though the Undaunted is absolutely a book that shows its age, i like it for the glimpse it shows into an old trans man's identity as both a trans person and a doctor in the 1930s. i was pleasantly surprised to see the title getting a reprint of sorts, and am glad to have it on my shelf.
non-fiction
Self: A Study in Ethics and Endocrinology
by Michael Dillon, entry added december 28, 2022subjects: transmasculinity, historical documents, medicine
another book written by a historical trans man. Michael Dillon lived a downright fascinating life and is often described as the first trans man to undergo medical transition. i'd argue that this claim is a bit inaccurate and implies that bottom surgery is the only procedure that matters for the purposes of getting a sex change, but i won't indulge in rambling about this too long. anyway--
Dillon's book is a pretty unassuming little text and one of the physically smallest books in my collection. in it he talks about queer identity/inversion/transsexuality and how endocrinologists ought to support trans patients' authentic genders, rather than try to force them to live as their assigned sex at birth. it's a rather subtle but brave example of self-advocacy, and one that likely took a lot of courage to publish.
similarly to Lou's book below, i shared it on the internet archive.
Information for the Female to Male Cross Dresser and Transsexual, 3rd edition
by Louis Sullivan, entry added december 28, 2022subjects: transmasculinity, historical documents, guides, transsexuality
i don't have a lot to say about this particular book except that, when it was published by Lou in 1990, it was one of the very few mostly-comprehensive guides specifically intended to assist transmasculine people thru transitioning. the thing i really like about this book is that he also took the time to include historical examples of transmasculine identity, nonfiction resources on the subject, and fictional depictions of transmasc people/issues.
for the time this book was pretty influential, as Lou himself was. if he had lived longer, i'm sure he would have kept updating it with information as news came out, but sadly, we got just the three editions.
initially i sought to acquire this book for a historical project i work on when i've got time, which is dedicated to Lou Sullivan's life and work. the copy i bought is signed and still came with the original errata sheet--a page included to correct an error noticed after the book went to print and it was too late to edit. when i bought this copy, there were no accessible scans of the book available online that i could link to for my historical site, so i uploaded the book and made it freely available on the internet archive. as far as i know, this is the only scan of the 3rd edition available online.