HART, Alan L. The Undaunted [TRANSEXUAL NOVEL]. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, (1935).

First Edition stated. Baldridge dustjacket art. Author's very scarce second novel, the story of medical laboratory researchers. Alan Hart (1890-1962) was a physician, radiologist, tuberculosis researcher and writer/novelist. In 1917-18, he was one of the first trans men to undergo hysterectomy and gonadectomy surgeries, the very first in the United States. In his childhood, he was free to present as male, and his family was overall remarkably accepting for the time. He went back into the closet for his schooling years, though in college he published under male pseudonyms and anonymously in school newspapers and magazines. He underwent surgeries before his first medical internship, and lived the rest of his career and life trying (with varying degrees of success) to keep his pre-transition life a secret from colleagues, patients and friends, living exclusively as a man in society. Hart’s medical career consisted primarily of innovative research into early detection of TB using x-rays, and large-scale implementation of mobile and permanent TB clinics in Idaho and Connecticut, which helped curb the early 20th century epidemic in those states significantly. Hart also found time to be a successful novelist. Aspects of his protagonists are semi-autobiographical, including rare examples of LGBTQ representation in popular fiction, and he is considered a pioneer in medical fiction. A Good only copy, vertical roll at spine, spine ends rather worn, front free endpaper clipped out, front and rear pastedowns suffer from abrasions from bookplate removal, married to a Near Fine original publisher's dustjacket, stored separately all these many years.

Price: $3,000.00