London: William Heinemann, 1954. First edition. Preface by Canon Millbourn. xi, 154pp; frontis; plates. Blue cloth stamped in silver to spine; lacking the jacket. Boards rather rubbed, lightly bowed, and with bumping to corners; binding a little loose, but secure. Good. Signed, inscribed, and dated in year of publication by Cowell to front endpaper: "To Charles: Without whose help this book would not have been written. Very Sincerely, Roberta (Betty) Cowell July, 1954."
Presentation copy of this trailblazing trans memoir by English race car driver and WWII fighter pilot Roberta Cowell (1918-2011). Though we have not established the identity of Cowell's inscribee, we hypothesize that it may have been Charles Eugene Dusseau, a doctor who in 1951 was responsible for having name and gender revised on Cowell's birth certificate, thus making her the first person to have their gender officially changed in the UK— an event seemingly worthy of the sincere gratitude offered here: "without whose help this book would not have been written." Cowell is also notable for being among the first trans people in the UK to undergo gender affirming surgery, carried out in her case by physician and author Michael Dillon (1915-1962), himself a trans man; the two enjoyed a close, if unequal friendship, which culminated in Cowell rejecting a marriage proposal from Dillon. Cowell's memoir propelled her to sudden fame, after several years of which she retired into relative obscurity for the rest of her life. An uncommon first, rarely encountered signed.
