Autobiography of an Androgyne

Facsimile of the original 1918 edition.
      This autobiography by Earl Lind is accompanied by an introduction by Dr. Alfred W. Herzog. It was intended for a clinical audience and is a pioneering work in the history of transgender literature. Throughout his life, Lind was forced to justify and defend his existence from puritanical authorities who refused to even recognize the reality of his identity as an androgyne. In the first of his trilogy of autobiographical works, he sought recognition, and exposed the denial of his existence as nothing but hatred and fear.          “Androgynes have existed in all ages and among all races. In Greek and Latin authors there are many references to them, but these references are not readily understood except by the few scholars who are themselves androgynes.
      These people, largely due to misunderstanding, were wrongly held in great abomination from the middle ages through into modern times. The prejudice against them was not so extreme in antiquity, and a cultured citizen having this nature did not then lose caste on this account. Situating his own identity within a history of oppression, Lind makes the case for recognizing the presence of androgynes in all human societies. Ever since he was a child, Lind identified as feminine and was keenly aware of his homosexual desires, gaining a reputation among the local boys and turning to girls for friendship and understanding. In a world that saw androgynes as willfully different, Lind sought to increase awareness explaining through scientific, historical, and personal evidence why his identity was congenital, and therefore natural.