This site is the most comprehensive on the web devoted to trans history and biography. Well over 1700 persons worthy of note, both famous and obscure, are discussed in detail, and many more are mentioned in passing.

There is a detailed Index arranged by vocation, doctor, activist group etc. There is also a Place Index arranged by City etc. This is still evolving.

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01 March 2007

The original GVWW bibliography from 2007

Bibliographies:

The original GVWW bibliography from 2007
Canadian (auto)biographies
Hoax biographies
(auto)biographies that are almost unobtainable
French and Belgian (auto) biographies and Histories
Biographies with the pre-transition name in the title 
Advice Manuals I: 1957-1979
Advice Manuals II: 1980-2000
Advice Manuals III: 2001-2017
Non-Fiction Books on other topics by trans authors

This is the original bibliography that I put up in 2007 when I started this encyclopedia. For a while, to 2010, I updated it, but as a dribble turned into a stream of books, this became unviable. I took it down as it was increasingly out of date. I reproduce it here for those who are interested.

This bibliography contains surveys, histories and studies.   It does not contain (auto)biographies.  Some of the books are mainly gay/lesbian histories, but contain tales of gender variant persons, often available nowhere else.

1600 - 1950

  • Jacques Duval. On Hermaphrodites, Childbirth, and the Medical Treatment of Mothers and Children. 1601.
  • Richard von Krafft-Ebing. Psychopathia sexualis. Mit besonderen Berücksichtigung der konträren Sexualempfindung. Eine klinisch-forensische Studie, 6th ed. (Stuttgart: Ferdinand Enke, 1892.
  • Magnus Hirschfeld. Die Transvestiten; ein Untersuchung uber den erotischen Verkleidungstrieb: mit umfangreichem casuistischen und historischen Material. Berlin: Pulvermacher, vi, 562 pp1910.
  • Bram Stoker. Famous imposters London: Sidgwick & Jackson, New York:Sturgis & Walton, Company, ix,349pp, 10 illustrations, 1910. A pioneering work by the theatre manager and author of Dracula, but it leaves many questions untackled. No references or bibliography.
  • Oscar Paul Gilbert (translated from the French by Robert B. Douglas). Men in Women's Guise: Some Historical Instances of Female Impersonation. London:John Lane The Bodley Head Limited. New York: Bretano’s 284 pp 1926. No references or bibliography, uncritical, but a summary of the tales as retold in the early twentieth century.
  • Henry Havelock Ellis. Eonism and other supplementary studies. Philadelphia: F.A. Davis Co 1928.
  • C. J. Bulliet. Venus Castina: Famous Female Impersonators Celestial and Human. New York: Covici 308 pp 1928. New York: Bonanza Books. 1956.
  • Oscar Paul Gilbert, (translated from the French by J.Lewis May). Women in Men's Guise. London: John Lane The Bodley Head Limited. 1932. No references, uncritical, but a good summary of the facts as retold in the early part of the century.
  • Hermann Pörzgen. Theater ohne Frau das Bühnenleben er. kriegsgefangenen Deutschen 1914-1920. Dokumente zur Geschichte der Kriegsgefangenen des Weltkrieges, 2. Königsberg/Pr. [u.a.]: Ost-Europa-Verl, 1933.
  • C.J.S. Thompson. The Mysteries of Sex: Women Who Posed as Men and Men Who Impersonated Women London: Hutchinson. 1938. New York: Causeway Books 256 pp 8 plates1974. New York : Dorset Press, 1993.. In the style of Stoker, a popular retelling without references or bibliography. The author was the curator of a leading medical museum in England.

1951 - 1970

  • Edgar Carlton Winford. Femme Mimics. Dallas: Winford Co. 164 pp 1954. Selections online at www.queermusicheritage.us/femme1.html. 
  • L. B. Welken. They Changed their Sex. Toronto: Special Editions Ltd 1955. 
  • David O. Cauldwell (ed). Transvestism…Men in Female Dress. New York: Sexology Corp. 1956. 
  • Anon. Queens in Drag: Female Impersonators … on Parade. S-K Books 1964. 
  • Abby Sinclair, George Griffith, Carlson Wade & Latina Seville. I Was Male. Novel Books. 95 pp 1965. A historical survey by Griffith and Wade of eunuchs, castratos and ‘hermaphrodites’, with only a few pages on actual transsexuals. 
  • Antony James. Abnormal World of Transvestites & Sex Changes. New York: L. S. Publications 192 pp1965. Chapters on history, operations, prisons, married tv's, lesbian tv's, tv prostitutes, S&M among tv's and more. James also published America’s Homosexual Underground, in the same year. 
  • Chris Shaw & Arthur Oates. A Pictoral History of the Art of Female Impersonation. London: King-Shaw Productions. 1966. 
  • Roger Baker. Drag: a history of Female Impersonation on the Stage. London: A Triton Book. 1968.
  • E. C Crowder with a forward by Alfredo Rathermann. The Transsexuals. Libertyville, Ill.: Oligarch 192 pp 1969. 
  • Richard Green & John Money (ed). Transsexualism and Sex-Reassignment. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins Press,. 1969. 

1971 - 1980

  • Desmond Montmorency. The Drag Scene: The Secrets of Female Impersonators. London: Luxor Press. 1970.
  • Avery Willard. Female Impersonation. New York: Regiment Publications. 95 pp 1971.
  • George Alpert. The Queens A Da Capo Paperback. 1975. A photo collection featuring portraits of nine female impersonators whom he met through the impresario Kiki Hall.
  • Frederick Drimmer. Very Special People: The Struggles, Loves and Triumphs of Human Oddities. Bantam Books. 1976. Chp 30 on circus 'hermaphrodites', chps 10-15 and 32 on different bearded ladies.
  • Jonathan Katz. Gay American History: Lesbians And Gay Men In The U.S.A. New York: Crowell 1976. New York: A Discus Book.1978. Reproduces many original documents re passing women and Two-Spirits.
  • Colette Piat. Elles. Les Travestis (la vérité sur les transsexuels). Paris: Editions Presses de la Cité 277 pp 1978.
  • Serge Delarue. Caline (le sexe de l’aube). Paris: Editions Ramsey 276 pp 1978.
  • Peter Ackroyd. Dressing Up: Transvestism and Drag, the History of an Obsession. Simon and Shuster. 1979.

1981 - 1990

  • Homer Dickens. What a Drag. London: Angus & Robinson Publishers. 267 pp 1982
  • Betty Millan. Monstrous Regiment: Women Rulers in Men's Worlds. The Kensal Press. 1982. Women masculinized by the exercise of power.
  • John T. Talamini. Boys will be girls : the hidden world of the heterosexual male transvestite.Washington: University Press of America 1982.
  • Jonathan Katz. Gay/Lesbian Almanac. Harper & Row. 1983. Reproduces many original documents re gays and transpeople in the US 1607-1740 and 1880-1950.
  • Philip Core. Camp: the Lie that Tells the Truth. London : Plexus. New York: Delilah Books. 212 pp 1984. Features many entries re androgynous people in the arts or otherwise famous.
  • Kris Kirk and Ed Heath. Men In Frocks. London:Gay Men's Press 1984
  • Betty W. Steiner (ed). Gender Dysphoria: Development, Research, Management. New York and London: Plenum Press. 1985. the limited point of view of a gender clinic. Regards an MTF finding a husband as ‘unusual’; repeats Stoller’s nonsense about their being only three FTM transvestites. Has read only clinical literature.
  • Anthony Slide. Great pretenders: a history of female and male impersonation in the performing arts. Lombard, Ill.: Wallace-Homestead Book Co., 160 pp. 1986. Features many male and female impersonators. Some gaps. Bibliography with references to show-biz journals.
  • Joseph Doucé. La Question transsexuelle. Paris: Luminière et justice. 1986.
  • Walter L. Williams. The Spirit And The Flesh: Sexual Diversity In American Indian Culture.Beacon Press 1986.
  • Liz Hodgkinson. Body Shock: The Truth About Changing Sex. London: Columbus Books. 192 pp 1987. New York: Hyperion Books 1987. London: Virgin Publishing 1991. Contains biographies of male-born and female-born transsexuals not otherwise available in book form.
  • Antonia Frazer. The Warrior Queens. London: Mandarin Books, New York: Anchor Books 1988.
  • Annie Woodhouse. Fantastic women: sex, gender, and transvestism. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1989.
  • Rudolf M Dekker and Lotte C. van de Pol. Dekker. Vrouwen in mannenkleren: de geschiedenis van de vrouwelijke travestie. Rainbow pocketboeken, 134. Amsterdam: Uitgeverij Maarten Muntinga, 1989. Amsterdam: Muntinga, 1992. Translated by Judy Marcure and Lotte Van de Pol, with a Foreword by Peter Burke. The Tradition of Female Transvestism in Early Modern Europe. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Macmillan Press, New York : St. Martin's Press, 1989.
  • Holly Devor. Gender Blending: Confronting the Limits of Duality. Indiana University Press. 1989. Fifteen examples of women who have constructed their own gender models.
  • John Money and Margaret Lamacz. Vandalized Lovemaps: Paraphilic Outcome of Seven Cases on Pediatric Sexology. Prometheus Books. 1989. Clinical biographies of seven intersex people.
  • Julie Wheelwright. Amazons and Military Maids: Women who dressed as men in pursuit of life, liberty and happiness. Pandora 1989.
  • Diane Dugaw. Warrior Women and Popular Balladry 1650-1850.Cambridge University Press, 1989.

1990-1995

  • Camille Paglia. Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990.
  • Werner Krenkel.  “Transvestismus in der Antike”, 1990.  Reprinted in  Naturalia non turpiaSex and Gender in Ancient Greece and Rome.Schriften zur antiken Kultur- und Sexualwissenschaft. Wolfgang Bernard and Christiane Reitz (eds). Spudasmata 113. Hildesheim: Olms 2006.
  • Jessica Amanda Salmonson.  The Encyclopedia of Amazons: Women Warriors from Antiquity to the Modern Era.  Paragon House. 1991.
  • Marjorie Garber. Vested Interests: Cross-dressing and Cultural Anxiety.  New York: Routledge. xiii, 443 pp. 1992.  New York: HarperPerennial, 1993.
  • Jane Herve & Jeanne Lagier,  Les Transsexuel(le)s.  Paris: Editions Jacques Bertoin 265 pp 1992.
  • Vern L. Bullough & Bonnie Bullough.  Cross dressing, Sex and Gender.  Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. xi, 382 pp  1993.
  • Nan Goldin.  The Other Side.   New York: Scalo Publishers 144 pp 1993.  Photographs.
  • Richard Hall. Patriots in disguise: women warriors of the Civil War. New York : Paragon House, xiv, 224 pp 1993.. New York: Marlowe & Co., 1994.
  • Roger Baker, with contributions by Peter Burton and Richard Smith. Drag: a history of female impersonation in the performing arts. London: Cassell, WashingtonSquare, N.Y.: New York University Press,xi,284 pp,1994.  A rewrite in tune with later gay acceptance.
  • F. Michael Moore. Drag!: male and female impersonators on stage, screen, and television: an illustrated world history. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, vii, 301 pp 1994.

1995-1999

  • Jeanette Jones.  Walk on the Wild Side.  New York: Barricade Books 1995.  London: Souvenir Press 144 pp1995.  Photographs by the London photographer.
  • Vivienne Maricevic & Vicki Goldberg.  Male to female : la cage aux folles.  Zurick: Edition Stemmle  127 pp1995.
  • Vernon Coleman.  Men in dresses : a study of transvestism/crossdressing.  Barnstable: European Medical Journal 1996.
  • J. J. Allen. The Man in the Red Velvet Dress: Inside the World of Cross Dressing. New York: Carol Pub. Group, 1996.
  • Don Paulson and Roger Simpson. An Evening at the Garden of Allah: A Gay Cabaret in Seattle. Between men--between women. New York: Columbia University Press, 1996.
  • Susan Stryker & Jim Van Buskirk. Gay by the Bay: A History of Queer Culture in the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1996.
  • Julian Fleisher.  The Drag Queens of New York: An Illustrated Field Guide.  New York: Riverhead Book.  1996.
  • Valerie R. Hotchkiss. Clothes Make the Man: Female Cross Dressing in Medieval Europe.New York: Garland, 1996.
  • Phyllis Burke. Gender Shock: Exploding the Myths of Male and Female. New York: Anchor Books, 1996.
  • Geertje Mak.  Mannelijke vrouwen: Over grenzen van sekse in de negentiende eeuw (Masculine women: Crossing sex bounderies in the nineteenth-century). Amsterdam/ Meppel: Boom, 1997.
  • Alkarim Jivani. It's Not Unusual: A History of Lesbian and Gay Britain in the Twentieth Century. Bloomington: IndianaUniversity Press, 1997.
  • Holly Devor. FTM: female-to-male transsexuals in  society.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997.
  • Jessica Sussmann. British Medical Writings on Hermaphrodites 1600-1800. BSc. Dissertation -- Wellcome Institute for the History of Medicine, 1998.
  • Judith Halberstam. Female masculinity.  Durham, N.C.: Duke University Press, xiv,329 pp 1998.
  • Pat Califia.  Sex changes : the politics of transgenderism.  San Francisco: Cleis Press 1997.  Second edition by Patrick Califia  2003.
  • Robin Wilson.  “Transgendered Scholars Defy Convention, Seeking to Be Heard and Seen in Academe”  The Chronicle of Higher Education, February 6, 1998. pp A10-A12.   Online at www.queensu.ca/humanrights/tgts/tgts_experiences.htm
  • Holly Brubach. Girlfriend: Men, Women, and Drag. New York: Random House, 1999.
  • David Higgs (ed). Queer Sites: Gay Urban Histories Since 1600. London: Routledge, 1999.
  • Alice Domurat Dreger. Intersex in the Age of Ethics. Hagerstown,Md: University Pub. Group, 1999.
  • Del LaGrace Volcano & Judith 'Jack' Halberstam. The Drag King Book.  London: Serpent's Tail, 1999.

2000-2004

  • Laurence Senelick.  The Changing Room: Sex, Drag and Theatre.  London & New York: Routledge xvi, 540 pp 2000.
  • Alice Domurat Dreger. Hermaphrodites and the Medical Invention of Sex. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1998.
  • James Drake (Photographer), Benjamin Alire Saenz (Author), Jimmy Santiago Baca (Author), N. Y.) Pamela Auchincloss Gallery (New York (Author) Que Linda LA Brisa (What a Nice Breeze). Seattle: University of Washington Press 48 pp 2000.  New York: Pamela Auchincloss Arts Management 2001.
  • Sylvie Steinberg.  La Confusion des Sexes.  Paris: Librairie Arthème Fayard.  2001.
  • Dan Healey.  Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia:  The Regulation of Sexual and Gender Dissent.  Chicago and London:  The University of Chicago Press xvi, 392 pp 2001.
  • Joanne Meyerowitz.  How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States.  Cambridge, Ma, London: Harvard University Press. 363 pp 2002.
  • Luc Brisson & Janet Lloyd. Sexual Ambivalence: Androgyny and Hermaphroditism in Graeco-Roman Antiquity. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
  • Ruth Gilbert.  Early Modern Hermaphrodites: Sex and Other Stories.  New York: Palgrave Macmillan.  2002.
  • Claudio Edinger & Amir Labaki.  Alma femina.  São Paulo: A Books 2002.  Photographs.
  • Claudia Andrei. Transgender Underground: London and the Third Sex. London: Glitter, 2002.
  • Nan Alamilla Boyd.  Wide Open Town: A History of Queer San Francisco to 1965.  Universityof California Press 2003.
  • Fabliola Naldi.  I'll be your mirror : travestimenti fotografici.  Roma: Cooper & Castelvecchi 2003.
  • Andrew Bolton.  Bravehearts: Men in Skirts.  V&A Publications 96 pp 2003.
  • Siuleung Li. Cross-Dressing in Chinese Opera. Hong Kong: Hong Kong Univ. Press, 2003.
  • Pierre-Henri Castel.  La métamorphose impensableEssai sur le transsexualisme et l'identité personnelle.  Paris :  Gallimard.  2003.

2005-2010


  • Mark McLelland.  Queer Japan from the Pacific War to the Internet Age.  Lanham Md & Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield 2005: chp 3 & 6.
  • Judith Halberstam. In a queer time and place: transgender bodies, subcultural lives.  New York: New York University  Press. 256 pp 2005.
  • Ellen Wallenstein.  A pocketbook of drag queens.  New York: ? 2005. Photographs.
  • Joseph Harris. Hidden Agendas: Cross-Dressing in 17th-Century France. Biblio 17, 156. Tübingen: Narr, 2005.
  • Michel Hurst & Robert Swope (eds).  Casa Susanna.  PowerHouse Books.  156 pp 2005.  The editors found a hundred or so photographs at a New York flea market that turn out to be taken at Valenti’s country home in Hunter, N.Y.
  • Maxime Foerster.  Histoire des transsexuels en France. Paris: Harmatten 2003.  Beziers: H&O 2006.
  • Fernande Gontier. Homme ou femme? La confusion des sexes. Paris: Perrin 218 pp 2006: chp 8. 
  • Elisabeth Krimmer. In the Company of Men Cross-Dressed Women Around 1800.  Detroit, Mich: Wayne State University Press, 2004.
  • Deborah Rudacille.  The Riddle of Gender.  New York: Pantheon Books.  2005.
  • Lillian Faderman & Stuart Timmons.  Gay L.A.: A History of Sexual Outlaws, Power Politics, and Lipstick Lesbians.  New York: Basic Books 430 pp 2006. 
  • Siu Leung Li. Cross-Dressing in Chinese Opera. Hong Kong: Hong KongUniversity Press, 2006.
  • Lillian Faderman, Yolanda Retter, and Horacio Roque Ramírez. Great Events from History: Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Events : 1848-2006. Pasadena [etc.]: Salem Press, 2006.
  • Sheila L. Cavanagh and Heather Sykes.   “Transsexual Bodies at the Olympics: The International Olympic Committee's Policy on Transsexual Athletes at the 2004 Athens Summer Games”.  Body Society.; 12: 75-102. 2006.
  • Robert S. Hill.  ‘As a man I exist; as a woman I live’: Heterosexual Transvestism and the Contours of Gender and Sexuality in Postwar America.  PhD Dissertation.  University of Michigan.  2007.
  • Alison Oram. Her Husband Was a Woman: Women's Gender-Crossing and Twentieth Century British Popular Culture. Women's and gender history. London: Routledge, 2007.
  • David Valentine.  Imagining Transgender: an ethnography of a category.  Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 2007.
  • Susan Stryker.  Transgender History.  Seal Press. 190 pp 2008.
  • Giuseppe Campuzano. Museo Travesti del Perú. Peru: Institute of Development Studies, 2008.
  • Morgan Holms. Intersex: A Perilous Difference.  SusquehannaUniversity Press. 2008.
  • Thea Hillman. Intersex (for Lack of a Better Word). San Francisco: Manic D Press, 2008.
  • Katrina Alicia Karkazis. Fixing Sex: Intersex, Medical Authority, and Lived Experience. Durham: Duke University Press, 2008.
  • Tracie O’Keefe (ed) Trans People in Love. Routledge 2008.
  • Kelley Winters and Dan Karasic. Gender Madness in American Psychiatry: Essays from the Struggle for Dignity. Dillon, CO: GID Reform Advocates, 2008.
  • David M. Halperin & Valerie  Traub. Gay Shame. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.
  • Arturo Arnalte. Transfugas, travestis y traidores: Rebeldes Ejemplares De La Historia De Espana. 2009.
  • Robin Bauer. "Ihre Eltern dachten, dass sie ein Junge wäre.": Transsexualität und Transgender in einer zweigeschlechtlichen Welt. Maennerschwarm. 2009.
  • Morgan Holms. Critical Intersex. Farnham: Ashgate Pub Co. 2009.
  • Markus Orths. La mujer travestida. Salamandra Publicacions Y Edicions. 2009.
  • Elizabeth Reis. Bodies in Doubt: An American History of Intersex. Hopkins Fulfillment Service. 2009.
  • Charles Upchurch. Before Wilde: Sex between Men in Britain's Age of Reform. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2009.
  • Sally Hines and Tam Sanger (ed). Transgender Identities: Towards a Social Analysis of Gender. Routledge, 2010.
  • Rose White. Harry Benjamin Syndrome Review.  CompletelyNovel.  2010. 

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