The Strange Career of the Chevalier d'Eon de Beaumont

London: Longmans, Green, and Co, 1885. First Edition. Very Good. First edition, first printing. [xxiv], 378, [2], [24, ads] pp with frontisportrait, 2 plates, and folding facsimile letter. Bound in publisher's crimson cloth ruled in bind with spine lettered in gilt. Very Good with lean to binding, fading to spine, spotting and splatter staining to cloth. Bookplate of diplomat E. H. Terrell (1848-1910) at front pastedown with his name written in purple ink at verso free endpaper. Light offsetting to tissue guards. A scarce biography of the transgender 18th-century diplomat, decorated solider, celebrity fencer and spy employed by King Louis XV as a member of the Secret du Roi network. D'Eon was a respected consul figure after playing a crucial role in peace negotiations that ended the Seven Years' War. D'Eon appeared publicly for 49 years as a man, but fenced in women's attire, including before George, the Prince of Wales. Such was D'Eon's celebrity that the public placed bets on D'Eon's sex, and they were offered a veritable fortune to be physically examined. King Louis XVI eventually conceded to their preferred gender identity, offering funding for a new wardrobe of women's clothes and allowing them to wear the insignia of the Order of St. Louis. From late 1777 and onward, they would go on to present themselves as female until their death. A post-mortem on the Chevalier, which this text details, found female characteristics, but also "male organs in ever respect perfectly formed." An important biography and an early representation of a trans figure in European society. The Chevalier d'Éon has appeared as a character in numerous fictional works and music, inspiring the British transgender advocacy organization The Beaumont Society.