Recap of the book Therese Andreas Bruce, an autobiography edited by Inger Littberger Caisou-Rousseau.

1. I just read the
autobiography of
(Therese) Andreas
Bruce.
19th century... well,
trans man is probably
the closest modern
word.
Pretty good read, too.

2. He was one of 12 children of a minor nobleman.
At birth, he was named Therese and raised as a girl, but
he always claimed that he was really a boy. Members of
the household called him “Fröken Herrn” (“Miss Master”).
The parents showed little interest in the kids, except the
father tried to make sexual advances on his daughters,
including Therese/Andreas. (“But I'm a boy!”)
When confronted by his wife, the father claimed he had
only wanted to see if his children were virtuous. Uh-huh.
A+ parenting, dad.

3. Therese/Andreas wanted to live as a man, but his father
categorically forbade him from wearing men's clothes.
Though he said having a mistress would be all right since
no one had to know about that.
A+ parenting again.
Eventually Therese/Andreas tired of this and ran off from
home, cutting off his hair and seeking help from a friend.
He'd left a suicide note, so the family got really scared.

4. When Therese/Andreas realized how much he'd
scared his family he came back home.
They were now more willing to let him live as a
man.
With his father's permission, he could finally get a
doctor's appointment.
He told the doctor: “If I can't wear trousers, I can't
live!”
The doctor signed an attestation that he was a
“hermaphrodite” but mostly male.

5. Andreas changed his
name, and his father had
him taken from the list of
noblewomen to the list of
noblemen.
It was done in a matter-of-
fact way, but
predictably caused quite
a bit of gossip.
There were satirical
songs made about him,
even.

6. Some members of the family stopped talking to
him for a while.
He got a job in a shop. At one point a female
customer asked him to show her “how he was
made”.
When he politely refused, she gave him some
money and said that she felt sorry for him.
Others were more hostile. There's a pretty nasty
description of an attempted gang rape.

7. After a while, though, the commotion died down.
Most people seem to have regarded Andreas as a
man, whether or not they knew his history.
He did a man's work, served in the army for a
while, and had relationships with women.
(In the autobiography he repeatedly comes back
to how manly he is compared to other, less brave
or forceful men.)

8. There were still people who claimed that Andreas was
“really a lady.” One was his colleague Nyström, who fell
in love with Andreas.
Somehow – it doesn't appear to have been outright rape,
but definitely coercion – Andreas got pregnant.
He gave birth to his daughter in secret, and she was
fostered away for a while.
There was gossip about this too. Sometimes people
would come and tell him that the baby was dead, just to
see how he'd react. Outwardly, he never did, though it
“cut my heart”, as he writes..

9. A couple of years later, Andreas moved in with
Maria Lindblad, who would be his de facto wife
(they could never marry) for forty years.
He brought his daughter back home, and she was
raised alongside Maria's daughter as sisters.
His letters to his daughter are signed “dad”, and
Maria is called “mom”.

10. The rest of his life seems to have been quite mundane.
The letters certainly aren't very interesting, mostly local
news and grumbles about money.
At one point, he found God, so there's a lot of
admonitions to put your trust in Jesus.
The book ends with a long epic poem that he wrote,
called “Vengeance and Reconciliation.”
It's not very well written, but still fun to read.
And that's it.