Like the previous chapter on John Berger, Alfred Grouard is more a story of genre than trans history. Is Alfred’s core mystery his gender status? Or was it the fortune he amassed that disappeared? The framing of these twin “mysteries” as equal (and perhaps related) tells us something about the treatment of transition that was justified in a way cisgender people could understand.
I unfortunately could not find any photos of Alfred, despite his living with a famous publisher and author.
