# Help me identify this book (nonfiction, F2M memoir) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 10, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-nonfiction-f2m-memoir/673590 "2013-11-10T18:54:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-nonfiction-f2m-memoir/673590/1 "2013-11-10T18:54:29Z")
Yeah, another “identify this book from vague description” thread. Google is not being my friend today, nor is Amazon. I read it in 1984 so it obviously had a publication date prior to that. It was a personal account of what it’s like to be a female to male transsexual (that was the word in use back then, no one was saying “transgendered” yet). I seem to recall that the author was hispanic as per her own description of family of origin, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into having an hispanic sounding last name. The book title was of the format SINGLEWORD: Subtitle after the Colon I remember _that_ part pretty clearly, because a different book by a M2F transsexual, Jan Morris, was titled _Conundrum: From James to Jan_ and I remember thinking with amusement when I obtained the one I’m trying to remember, that that must be the expected pattern if you are writing a TS memoir. It was in fact another long word such as Conundrum. I dunno, Transformation, or Exegesis or some such thing. Ring a bell with anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-nonfiction-f2m-memoir/673590/2 "2013-11-10T19:17:55Z")
Moved to Cafe Society. Colibri General Questions Moderator ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-nonfiction-f2m-memoir/673590/3 "2013-11-10T19:39:27Z")
You’re right, there seem to be a lot of TITLE: subtitle books in the field. We could have some interesting discussions about that alone. 😃 I found: Dawn Langley - Man into Woman: A Transsexual Autobiography (ca. 1970) These two are early 1990s: Kate Bornstein - Gender Outlaw: On Men, Woman, and the Rest of Us Jennifer Spry - Orlando’s Sleep: An Autobiography of Gender ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-nonfiction-f2m-memoir/673590/4 "2013-11-10T20:36:50Z")
Nope, the Title part of TITLE:Subtitle was a single word, a long noun of some sort. ---
**Author:** ![BleizDu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@BleizDu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BleizDu)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-nonfiction-f2m-memoir/673590/5 "2013-11-10T20:56:08Z")
This one? > **[Amazon.fr - Emergence: A transsexual autobiography - Martino, Mario - Livres](https://www.amazon.fr/Emergence-transsexual-autobiography-Mario-Martino/dp/0517529521)** > > Noté /5. Retrouvez Emergence: A transsexual autobiography et des millions de livres en stock sur Amazon.fr. Achetez neuf ou d'occasion Emergence: A transsexual autobiography, by Mario Martino ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e4f/32.png) [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_is_the_new_Analog)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-nonfiction-f2m-memoir/673590/6 "2013-11-10T21:07:22Z")
> [@BleizDu](#): > > This one? > > [Amazon.fr - Emergence: A transsexual autobiography - Livres](http://www.amazon.fr/Emergence-transsexual-autobiography-Mario-Martino/dp/0517529521) > Emergence: A transsexual autobiography, by Mario Martino Here is the link to the same [book](http://www.amazon.com/Emergence-transsexual-autobiography-Mario-Martino/dp/0517529521), with the .fr replaced by .com to provide the text in English. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-nonfiction-f2m-memoir/673590/7 "2013-11-10T23:40:31Z")
These two, via Worldcat (searched for Transsexuals as a subject, limited publication to 1970-1984, though it could be older than that) [Perry: A Transformed Transsexual](http://www.worldcat.org/title/perry-a-transformed-transsexual/oclc/34180519&referer=brief_results) ([more recent printing](http://www.amazon.com/Perry-A-Transformed-Transsexual-Desmond/dp/0892280999/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384126365&sr=8-1&keywords=Perry+%3A+a+transformed+transsexual) via Amazon) ? [Canary: The Story of a transsexual](http://www.worldcat.org/title/canary-the-story-of-a-transsexual/oclc/3874566&referer=brief_results) ([Amazon page](http://www.amazon.com/Canary-The-story-transsexual-Conn/dp/084021345X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384126538&sr=8-1&keywords=Canary+%3A+the+story+of+a+transsexual)) [Jennifer: Woman by choice](http://www.worldcat.org/title/jennifer-woman-by-choice/oclc/535486385&referer=brief_results) ([Amazon](http://www.amazon.com/Jennifer-Woman-By-Choice-Fontaine/dp/0899632653/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1384126693&sr=8-3&keywords=Jennifer%3A+Woman+by+choice)) (I missed the F2M part of your OP, but having typed this in/made the links, I’m going to go ahead and post on the off chance one is your book, but I think that unlikely with the latter 2) ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2013, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-nonfiction-f2m-memoir/673590/8 "2013-11-10T23:53:04Z")
> [@BleizDu](#): > > This one? > > [Amazon.fr - Emergence: A transsexual autobiography - Livres](http://www.amazon.fr/Emergence-transsexual-autobiography-Mario-Martino/dp/0517529521) > Emergence: A transsexual autobiography, by Mario Martino Yep. Don’t _have_ to read the descrip, I recognize the title and author once I see 'em. Thanks muchly. ---
**Author:** ![BleizDu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/9dc877/32.png) [@BleizDu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BleizDu)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-nonfiction-f2m-memoir/673590/9 "2013-11-11T08:45:41Z")
You’re welcome! There’s only a handful of FTM books (Like, 5 or so) before the explosion of the 2000’s and I have all the oldies. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [November 11, 2013, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-identify-this-book-nonfiction-f2m-memoir/673590/10 "2013-11-11T15:22:41Z")
Yeah, I know! I was trying to read books on the general subject in 1979 when I was attempting to come to terms with my own sexual and gender identity. After reading a handful of MTF accounts, it struck me as unusual that I had not read a single book from the inverse experience and this (_Emergence_) was the _only one_ I could find listed in searches, and I had to get this one interlibrary loan.