Presenting: Robin Roberts. America’s Most Beautiful Boy

New York: Marquis Publishers, [c. 1960].
First Edition.

21.5cm x 13.5cm. [64] pages, black and white illustrations. Pictorial saddle-stapled wrappers.

Digest photobook of Florida drag performer Robin Roberts, “The Miami Peach”, with two photo-sequences tracing a performative transition from boy to queen. Little is known of Roberts beyond these shoots, but the photographs were reprinted numerous times in the drag magazine ‘Female Mimics’, on one occasion under the name Windy Starr. Bob Davis, founder and director of the Louise Lawrence Transgender Archive, notes that Lee Brewster (owner of Lee’s Mardi Gras Boutique in New York) described the Marquis digest as one of his best all-time sellers, and that “except for these photos, which appear to have all been shot in one session, virtually nothing is known about Robin Roberts” (‘Female Mimics Part 3: Pudgy’s Challenge’, TGForum). A single copy of this edition recorded in OCLC at Yale, with two further copies traced of the 34 page edition, which was published without an imprint and contains only the first sequence.

Minor soiling to wrappers, very minor insect damage to edges. Small split to spine tail, still firm. Good Condition.

AU$250