On December 1, 1952, readers of the New York Daily News were greeted with a banner headline: EX-GI BECOMES BLONDE BEAUTY: OPERATIONS TRANSFORM BRONX YOUTH. In the ensuing 18 months, more than half a million words about Jorgensen rolled off the world’s presses.

“Christine Jorgensen was arguably the most famous person in the world for a few short years nearly half a century ago,” writes historian Susan Stryker in her introduction to the new edition of Christine Jorgensen: A Personal Autobiography.

Jorgensen offers an intimate account of her groundbreaking life as the first world-renowned transsexual. “Nature made a mistake,” she writes, “which I have corrected." An entertainer who played clubs from Las Vegas to Havana, Jorgensen was both “banned” in Boston and named “Woman of the Year” in New York City. She hobnobbed with Judy Garland, Tennessee Williams, Natalie Wood, and Truman Capote.