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Autobiography of an Androgyne
Jennie June published The Autobiography of an Androgyne in 1918, making her one of the first transgender Americans to publicize her story. Her goal was to make her trials well known and to rally the support of Americans to create an accepting environment for young adults who do not necessarily adhere to gender and sexual norms. June also wanted to prevent her younger counterparts from committing suicide.Her memoir explains that she identifies as a third sex, calling herself an "androgyne," and includes many personal narratives and details about her sexual encounters, and includes her story of castration. The memoir describes in detail her sexual encounters and desires, but also contains pleas for understanding and acceptance of these "fairies." The Autobiography of an Androgyne also describes how June felt that she lived a double life in the sense that she was an educated, middle-class white male scholar but also had intense yearnings for performing sexual acts that actually distracted her and caused her suffering.[Adapted from Wikipedia]
260 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1918
19 people are currently reading
852 people want to read
About the author
Jennie June
2 books4 followersJennie June was a Victorian and Edwardian era writer and activist for the rights of people who didn't conform to gender and sexual norms. He was one of the earliest transgender individuals to publish an autobiography in the United States.
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Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews
January 28, 2022
One of the first memoirs of a transfeminine person ever. Really foundational and important and heartbreaking.
Want to read
January 15, 2019From the syllabus for Trans Literatures and Cultures, a class taught by Grace Lavery, who I happen to follow on Twitter because she's super funny and also erudite.
btw it's pronounced like it rhymes with crudité, or at least like it rhymes with titty. A lot of people don't know that. Er-oo-ditty. That's how you say that word.
Anyway Orlando is on that list, obvs, and Doom Patrol, in case you wanted to know whether Lavery is this kind of professor or that kind, and a few other things, and this.
btw it's pronounced like it rhymes with crudité, or at least like it rhymes with titty. A lot of people don't know that. Er-oo-ditty. That's how you say that word.
Anyway Orlando is on that list, obvs, and Doom Patrol, in case you wanted to know whether Lavery is this kind of professor or that kind, and a few other things, and this.
August 30, 2023
3.5 super interesting to read but A Lot and very repetitive rip jennie june you would have loved grindr and ethel cain
April 23, 2024
“Autobiography Of An Androgyne” is a curious, fascinating historical document, but ultimately a tragic read. Initially published in an edition of only 1,000 in 1918 by the Medico-Legal Journal for a limited audience of scientists, doctors, sociologists, and ‘alienists’ (early psychologists) this memoir details the life of a very effeminate, even possibly trans man from his birth to a puritanical, upper-middle class household in Connecticut in 1873 through his eventual self-realization as “Jennie June” cruising for sexual encounters in the largely immigrant neighborhoods of late 1890s Manhattan and Brooklyn, and his personal and professional struggles up to 1918, at the age of 45.
It’s hard not to play armchair psychiatrist while reading Earl Lind/“Ralph Werther/“Jennie June’s” account. His penchant for masochism, his acquiescence to robbery and even rape, his identification as a helpless “baby girl”: are these caused by the social climate, and his religion-steeped acceptance of his ‘bad’ nature as deserving of such? Or, as he also argues, is he a congenital ‘androgyne’, a woman trapped in a man’s body, making this perhaps the earliest “Trans” autobiography? It’s a mixed bag.
His homosexuality and identification as a girl date to early childhood, he relates, as does a precocious and insatiable sexual appetite. Once settled in New York as a college student in the 1890s, he leads a double life, going on sprees searching for passive oral sex with what would now be termed ‘rough trade’. In the process he often finds success, but is also subjected to beatings, rapes (and subsequent Injuries and venereal diseases), robbery, and attempted blackmail by his “beaux”. It’s tough to read about, but nevertheless fascinating for its picture of the gay underworld in that era, even including a glimpse of a night at the infamous “Paresis Hall” on the Bowery. He seems to take this regular abuse as only his due. Finally tired of this, and loving men in uniform especially, he tries his luck at local military camps, with similar results. At age 28, despairing of controlling his sexual appetites and fearing more of the same, even fearing for his life, he has himself medically castrated. Up to this point his sexual escapades are graphically described, originally rendered more discreet though his use of Latin; they’re here rendered in bracketed English as well. Cross-dressing was of course pretty much impossible in public, though he enjoys wearing more feminine clothing at home, and one senses were he born a hundred years later, he might well have.
A leitmotif is a plea for acceptance of “born androgynes” like himself, but he separates that passive feminine class from other homosexuals, who are characterized in places as sinful predators (perhaps understandable, given his experience). And perhaps he had second thoughts later; the work was written over decades, and there is an apologia for Oscar Wilde in an appendix at the end, but it’s still troubling on balance. Nonetheless, we have to take him as a product of his era, trying to make sense of his nature in an unremittingly hostile environment, compounded by his apparently devout Christianity. He does seem in the end to have found some kind of self-acceptance, but at terrible cost. It’s an important document for queer history, and even New York history, but ultimately the reader (especially a gay reader of this era) will be left with a sympathetic, but perhaps slightly ambivalent, impression.
It’s hard not to play armchair psychiatrist while reading Earl Lind/“Ralph Werther/“Jennie June’s” account. His penchant for masochism, his acquiescence to robbery and even rape, his identification as a helpless “baby girl”: are these caused by the social climate, and his religion-steeped acceptance of his ‘bad’ nature as deserving of such? Or, as he also argues, is he a congenital ‘androgyne’, a woman trapped in a man’s body, making this perhaps the earliest “Trans” autobiography? It’s a mixed bag.
His homosexuality and identification as a girl date to early childhood, he relates, as does a precocious and insatiable sexual appetite. Once settled in New York as a college student in the 1890s, he leads a double life, going on sprees searching for passive oral sex with what would now be termed ‘rough trade’. In the process he often finds success, but is also subjected to beatings, rapes (and subsequent Injuries and venereal diseases), robbery, and attempted blackmail by his “beaux”. It’s tough to read about, but nevertheless fascinating for its picture of the gay underworld in that era, even including a glimpse of a night at the infamous “Paresis Hall” on the Bowery. He seems to take this regular abuse as only his due. Finally tired of this, and loving men in uniform especially, he tries his luck at local military camps, with similar results. At age 28, despairing of controlling his sexual appetites and fearing more of the same, even fearing for his life, he has himself medically castrated. Up to this point his sexual escapades are graphically described, originally rendered more discreet though his use of Latin; they’re here rendered in bracketed English as well. Cross-dressing was of course pretty much impossible in public, though he enjoys wearing more feminine clothing at home, and one senses were he born a hundred years later, he might well have.
A leitmotif is a plea for acceptance of “born androgynes” like himself, but he separates that passive feminine class from other homosexuals, who are characterized in places as sinful predators (perhaps understandable, given his experience). And perhaps he had second thoughts later; the work was written over decades, and there is an apologia for Oscar Wilde in an appendix at the end, but it’s still troubling on balance. Nonetheless, we have to take him as a product of his era, trying to make sense of his nature in an unremittingly hostile environment, compounded by his apparently devout Christianity. He does seem in the end to have found some kind of self-acceptance, but at terrible cost. It’s an important document for queer history, and even New York history, but ultimately the reader (especially a gay reader of this era) will be left with a sympathetic, but perhaps slightly ambivalent, impression.
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February 18, 2024Many many troublesome aspects in this from a modern perspective, but I really just wanna give Jennie June the biggest hug of all time. I’m so sorry my love
July 2, 2023
Autobiography of an Androgyne is an interesting yet restricted look at a queer experience at the turn of the 19th century. Though dated by medical knowledge, anti-LGBT perspectives and old terminologies, it shows direct lines between experiences of this individual and the modern transgender experience.
*Note: Though the book uses "he/him" for the author, I'll be using "she/her." Jennie says that she would be referred to using feminine pronouns by those in her chosen community. I think it's most respectful to continue this, not to mention I would also be part of these communities.*
I think the quote from the unnamed business associate that ends the book well describes how Jennie outlines her life, "[She] conveys the impression, as it were, of always being on the point of apologizing for the fact that [she] exists." Throughout, the author describes herself as a degenerate and wretch and appeals to bigoted reader of the time to see pity on her. It's easy to see why. The publisher's note opening the book shows that on publishing, only medical professionals and lawyers were even allowed access this story. Alfred W. Herzog assures readers that he finds the following story offensive, but does show some level of sympathy and at least agrees that LGBT behaviors should not be criminalized after hearing from the author.
I'll get it out of the way here, Jennie is a trans woman. The title may be ahistorical, but her description of asserting she was a girl at the age of three or four, desire to be the opposite sex, dressing in women's clothes when in private, and using a female name and pronoun when possible makes it obvious. Historians can disagree, but if we're comfortable seeing other historical figures as straight, we can call Jennie transgender.
Jennie's story focuses almost entirely on their experiences seeking lovers, which she describes as only accounting for several hours of her life every month. This makes sense given the perception of homosexuality and gender non-conformity at the time, but gives a very narrow view of her life. This was her only outlet to be seen as a woman, so what she describes as nyphomania is probably more her seeking gender euphoria than acting out hypersexuality. Sadly, the reader misses out on the broader view of her life outside of these experiences.
Her story shows how horrific it was to be LGBT at the time. In her life she faced sexual abuse as a child, physical and sexual assault from strangers, blackmail and threats of imprisonment, domestic abuse, lifelong thoughts of suicide and near death experiences. But throughout she felt the need to be seen as a woman and continued at risk of her life. She draws a depressing connection to the modern trans experience over 100 years later by saying, "Yet the world has no sympathy for these unhappiest of mortals, the refined sexual inverts. Thousands of them are driven to suicide out of every generation, and yet the world is unmoved by their sorrows. "
Jennie June's autobiography is worth a read for those seeking to find stories of queer individuals before 1960, which is depressingly hard to do. There are many gaps to her story, but it gives the reader a landmark in uncovering the hidden history of the queer community.
*Note: Though the book uses "he/him" for the author, I'll be using "she/her." Jennie says that she would be referred to using feminine pronouns by those in her chosen community. I think it's most respectful to continue this, not to mention I would also be part of these communities.*
I think the quote from the unnamed business associate that ends the book well describes how Jennie outlines her life, "[She] conveys the impression, as it were, of always being on the point of apologizing for the fact that [she] exists." Throughout, the author describes herself as a degenerate and wretch and appeals to bigoted reader of the time to see pity on her. It's easy to see why. The publisher's note opening the book shows that on publishing, only medical professionals and lawyers were even allowed access this story. Alfred W. Herzog assures readers that he finds the following story offensive, but does show some level of sympathy and at least agrees that LGBT behaviors should not be criminalized after hearing from the author.
I'll get it out of the way here, Jennie is a trans woman. The title may be ahistorical, but her description of asserting she was a girl at the age of three or four, desire to be the opposite sex, dressing in women's clothes when in private, and using a female name and pronoun when possible makes it obvious. Historians can disagree, but if we're comfortable seeing other historical figures as straight, we can call Jennie transgender.
Jennie's story focuses almost entirely on their experiences seeking lovers, which she describes as only accounting for several hours of her life every month. This makes sense given the perception of homosexuality and gender non-conformity at the time, but gives a very narrow view of her life. This was her only outlet to be seen as a woman, so what she describes as nyphomania is probably more her seeking gender euphoria than acting out hypersexuality. Sadly, the reader misses out on the broader view of her life outside of these experiences.
Her story shows how horrific it was to be LGBT at the time. In her life she faced sexual abuse as a child, physical and sexual assault from strangers, blackmail and threats of imprisonment, domestic abuse, lifelong thoughts of suicide and near death experiences. But throughout she felt the need to be seen as a woman and continued at risk of her life. She draws a depressing connection to the modern trans experience over 100 years later by saying, "Yet the world has no sympathy for these unhappiest of mortals, the refined sexual inverts. Thousands of them are driven to suicide out of every generation, and yet the world is unmoved by their sorrows. "
Jennie June's autobiography is worth a read for those seeking to find stories of queer individuals before 1960, which is depressingly hard to do. There are many gaps to her story, but it gives the reader a landmark in uncovering the hidden history of the queer community.
April 9, 2024
A work of phenomenal importance, as a detailed and lengthy journal of a "faerie", largely living in New York, in the 1890s-1900s. The author is well read and able to readily reference sexology texts and authors of the past 40 years, at the time of writing. Though that being said, the date of publishing is 1918, and so it must be understood that this is a pursuit of sexual self-understanding and self-explanation which is undertaken by the author in a world where human sex hormones have not yet been identified and isolated, and chromosomal sexual differentiation in humans is not yet discovered. Such that, a much-desired scientific answer to the question "what is an androgyne?" does not come easily to the author, for want of virtually anything at all of our current understanding of sexual development.
But this book's value is not in its wild postulating about human self-sexual-classification (as interesting a time capsule as that is). Instead, its value is in its capturing the experience of a very sexually active individual (intensely attracted to masculine men) of multifaceted gender presentation, in the period that it does. It is often very sad, in this, as the author is much abused (and pursues very dangerous companions actively). But the account is invaluable. Particularly due to its utter honesty in every area of sexual subject matter concerned.
This is to be clear not a novel, and so is not a narrative which reads and flows elegantly. It is an exercise in self-description, rather than a work of literature for the sake of literary purposes. And it is only for that that I rate this a 4/5. In importance, it is certainly a 5/5.
But this book's value is not in its wild postulating about human self-sexual-classification (as interesting a time capsule as that is). Instead, its value is in its capturing the experience of a very sexually active individual (intensely attracted to masculine men) of multifaceted gender presentation, in the period that it does. It is often very sad, in this, as the author is much abused (and pursues very dangerous companions actively). But the account is invaluable. Particularly due to its utter honesty in every area of sexual subject matter concerned.
This is to be clear not a novel, and so is not a narrative which reads and flows elegantly. It is an exercise in self-description, rather than a work of literature for the sake of literary purposes. And it is only for that that I rate this a 4/5. In importance, it is certainly a 5/5.
May 5, 2022
A shocking account of the living conditions of queer people between the 19th and 20th century.
This book is a, likely exaggerated and romanticised, tale of the life of an extraordinary individual. I'm certain that this person, had they been born today, would have considered herself a transgender woman, and lead a better life. At the time, Jennie June considered herself an "androgyne", that is a person with a mostly male body, and a female brain/mind. This was in line with the theories of sexual inversion, which were common at the time.
I wouldn't recommend this book to someone who's new to LGBT issues, or someone who's easily impressionable, because it gets pretty dark and explicit. But, as a modern transgender person, being able to compare and contrast my experience with the author's is priceless.
When you start to realize that people with unexpected gender identities have always existed, you start to wonder what their lives looked like. How did they interpret their feelings about their gender? How did they deal with gender incongruence? The Autobiography of an Androgyne is one of the possible answers.
This book is a, likely exaggerated and romanticised, tale of the life of an extraordinary individual. I'm certain that this person, had they been born today, would have considered herself a transgender woman, and lead a better life. At the time, Jennie June considered herself an "androgyne", that is a person with a mostly male body, and a female brain/mind. This was in line with the theories of sexual inversion, which were common at the time.
I wouldn't recommend this book to someone who's new to LGBT issues, or someone who's easily impressionable, because it gets pretty dark and explicit. But, as a modern transgender person, being able to compare and contrast my experience with the author's is priceless.
When you start to realize that people with unexpected gender identities have always existed, you start to wonder what their lives looked like. How did they interpret their feelings about their gender? How did they deal with gender incongruence? The Autobiography of an Androgyne is one of the possible answers.
September 5, 2022
June's narrative defies the common framework that gender-affirming surgery is a turning point in one's experience of being trans. For that alone, to say nothing of her knowledge, language, and bravery, this text was worth the read. I must note, though, that itis not a happy story throughout and readers should brace themselves for numerous depictions of physical, verbal, and sexual abuse. That said, her story would only be partially-told without those heartbreaking scenes, since part of her project is to reveal the plight of a gender- nonconforming person in 1919, and in particular to encourage those reading her story to make the necessary changes to create a more accepting world.
July 28, 2022
Definitely a product of its time. Interesting to see how limited discourse during this era compromised their story and their understanding of themselves. Spends a lot of time recounting their sex work. Interesting to see how they his salacious content in Latin.
August 30, 2023
Fascinating and personal, and written in a casual, first person way that is easy to read. I did have to look up many words… but in getting to know Jennie June through these books, it’s more fascinating that frustrating. Jennie June is one of this people in history that I’d love to have dinner with!
January 30, 2025
I find myself very sympathetic for June, & this is the feeling that prevails, but undoubtedly very problematic at times. Overall tho a very educational read & I wish I could give June all the language we have today
March 2, 2025
the only reason why i say it's 3 stars is because it was so extremely graphic and was written in a very academic way, which made it hard to get through. also, lots of latin. with that said, it was very interesting and extremely heartbreaking.
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October 2, 2020Buy the version under the name Ralph Werther with an introduction by Scott Herring. You do not have all of the images and the marginal notes that make this text more legible.
Want to read
April 6, 2023to-read
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February 21, 2024Can see how it's seen as problematic but also quite insightful into how Jennie June saw themself and their experiences
March 29, 2025
Jennie June .... Girl!!
April 30, 2025
really enjoyed filling out the survey at the end
July 7, 2025
This was somehow so explicit but also so clinical
August 26, 2023
“On the eve of one of my fortnightly female-impersonation sprees, the reader probably supposes that I would be happy in anticipation. On the contrary, a great weight of sorrow and anxiety always oppressed me. There was of course an attraction which drew me to the city, but it was more than counterbalanced by the realization of the risks of my losing my then enviable position in life, and the dread of the danger I had to put myself in, in order to obtain the satisfaction of my instincts. A peculiar phenomenon was vivid images of violent blows in the face, since I had been the victim of such a number of times. But even apart from the dread of the real dangers, even if there were no such dangers, an overwhelming feeling of sadness and anxiety always came over me as the time to go forth on my peculiar quest approached.
“On the eve of a female-impersonation spree during this period, I always felt like a soldier on entering a great battle from which he realized he might never come back alive, or like a murderer on the eve of his electrocution.
“On such occasions I habitually sang to myself: ‘Why oh why should we be melancholy, boys,
Whose business ’tis to die?’”
“On the eve of a female-impersonation spree during this period, I always felt like a soldier on entering a great battle from which he realized he might never come back alive, or like a murderer on the eve of his electrocution.
“On such occasions I habitually sang to myself: ‘Why oh why should we be melancholy, boys,
Whose business ’tis to die?’”
January 8, 2015
Fascinating book written at the turn of the century and published initially in 1919. The author is a middle-class Anglo-American from the Northeastern U.S. who at times slums in New York City as a fairie among the immigrant working classes. The author had read Krafft-Ebing - the work is sort of a mix of auto-psycho-pathology, and memoir.
There's even lyrics for some self-written songs, odes to violent military men that Jennie June (the author's faerie identity) sought the attentions of. (the traditional or popular song tunes of the songs are indicated, and someone could perhaps try performing them.)
There was a second book published by Werther, The Female-Impersonators. And recently manuscript sections of a third book, The Riddle of the Underworld, have come to light: http://outhistory.org/wiki/Earl_Lind_...
There's even lyrics for some self-written songs, odes to violent military men that Jennie June (the author's faerie identity) sought the attentions of. (the traditional or popular song tunes of the songs are indicated, and someone could perhaps try performing them.)
There was a second book published by Werther, The Female-Impersonators. And recently manuscript sections of a third book, The Riddle of the Underworld, have come to light: http://outhistory.org/wiki/Earl_Lind_...
November 24, 2021
Do you really ‘rate’ a book like this? I have no idea. Regardless, this is both fascinating and bewildering. The author gets so beat up and abused so often yet it is described as if they think themselves at fault, or that this is simply the price for the satisfaction of their desires, but without much reflection out into what it tells us about attitudes to ‘abnormal’ sexuality, for they maintain their time’s distinctions between ‘normal’ and ‘perverted’ desires, and simply argue that so-called perverts shouldn’t be legislated against. Also when they get to their time in the soldiers’ camps it all gets strangely fanfic-ish, like ‘oh look at all these lovely young men who just adored me and called my name and look how cool and popular and not depressed I was’. A weird and fascinating read, with enough going on to maintain interest all the way through regardless of the strangeness of its presentation.
October 25, 2014
I can imagine it would've been a ground-breaking work had it been published for the general public and not just for a limited circle of sexulogists, doctors and lawyers (we don't want to spread obscene works, do we...). Today, this apologia is not as impressive, though it serves as a valuable complex probe into gay life in the US at the turn of the 20th century. However, it's mixed with fiction and the informative value is thus somehow diminished by the author's fables.
November 18, 2020
Really interesting from a historical and sociological perspective! There are certain aspects of how she defines and characterizes her experiences that don't sit well with me, but I recognize that a lot of that is just changing mores and ideas.
But, it is amazing to have a trans feminine perspective from a century ago!
But, it is amazing to have a trans feminine perspective from a century ago!
August 6, 2013
Very much a product of the times, with the pseudo scientific terms, and delicate physical descriptions. There are some insightful passages, but most of the time you are doubting the author's veracity. Indulgent, sometimes humorous, rarely truthful... A fitting description of languid aesthete
May 9, 2018
read for class
Displaying 1 - 26 of 26 reviews