The first man-made man

the story of two sexes, one love affair, and a twentieth-century medical revolution

Hardcover, 214 pages

English language

Published Nov. 26, 2006 by Bloomsbury.

ISBN:
978-1-59691-015-7
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In the 1920s when Laura Dillon felt like a man trapped in a woman's body, there were no words to describe her condition; transsexuals had yet to enter common usage. And there was no known solution to being stuck between the sexes. Laura Dillon did all she could on her own: she cut her hair, dressed in men's clothing, bound her breasts with a belt. But in a desperate bid to feel comfortable in her own skin, she experimented with breakthrough technologies that ultimately transformed the human body and revolutionized medicine. From upper-class orphan girl to Oxford lesbian, from post-surgery romance with Roberta Cowell (an early male-to-female) to self-imposed exile in India, Michael Dillon's incredible story reveals the struggles of early transsexuals and challenges conventional notions of what gender really means.

2 editions

Subjects

  • Dillon, Michael, -- 1915-1962
  • Transsexuals -- Great Britain -- Biography
  • Sex change -- Great Britain -- Biography
  • Gender identity -- Great Britain