HOMOSEXUALITY, TRANSVESTISM, & CHANGE OF SEX
First edition of one of the earliest scholarly, scientific monographs on transsexuality.
Very good in a very good jacket.
Price: $2,500.00
HOMOSEXUALITY, TRANSVESTISM, & CHANGE OF SEX
"The author undertook to write this book in the first place in order to satisfy numerous inquiries about the so-called 'change-of-sex' operation."
Preceded only by Michael Dillon's SELF (1946), HOMOSEXUALITY, TRANSVESTISM, & CHANGE OF SEX was just the second non-biographical/autobiographical book in English on transsexuality. While de Savitsch's careful distinctions between transvestism, homosexuality, and transsexualism owes much to the conservative theories of sexuality and sex roles current among even the more forward-thinking psychologists and psychiatrists of the day, the book is a sympathetic medical study of Arlette Leber, whose transition was among the first in Europe (Switzerland). de Savitsch is generally in favor of the decriminalization of mutually consensual sexual activity, but writes with more sensitivity around issues of transsexuality (or "inversion") than homosexuality. The book also remains an important and frequently cited source on the legendary story of Nicholas de Raylan.
Issued by a medical imprint of Heinemann, primarily for a small scientific audience (a US edition would follow later the same year, made up from UK sheets), de Savitsch's book is scarce on the market, especially so in jacket. OCLC shows some 100 holdings across both editions (which makes sense: many copies would have been sold directly to libraries), though we note they are fairly scattered, with many in the UK and Europe, and many if not most presumably circulating. An important work in trans history.
The Object
First edition. London: William Heinemann Medical Books Ltd., 1958. 7'' x 4.5''. Original full yellow cloth. In original unclipped (12s. 6d. net) red and white pictorial jacket. 120 pages. Foxing to jacket, with some minor soil and rubbing. Penned notation (dated 1969) to front flap. Book has slight lean. Two small penned notes (in same hand) to prelims. A handful of corner creases to pages. Spot or two of soil here and there. Overall, sound.
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