COWELL, Roberta

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