Finding Renée Richards: The Groundbreaking Story of Tennis's Trans Pioneer
Review Quotes: Finding Renée Richards offers a fascinating account of an important and often overlooked figure in American sports and culture. Julie Kliegman tells the story with impressive research, vivid writing, and searing honesty. A...
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Review Quotes: Finding Renée Richards offers a fascinating account of an important and often overlooked figure in American sports and culture. Julie Kliegman tells the story with impressive research, vivid writing, and searing honesty. A timely and timeless book. - Jonathan Eig, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for KING: A LIFE Finding Renée Richards is a magnificent portrait of one of the most famous trans women in American history. Kliegman catalogs Renée Richards's life and career with remarkable care, excavating the intimate thoughts--and occasional political contradictions--of a titanic figure in queer life. - Michael Waters, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of THE OTHER OLYMPIANS Amid culture war screaming, Finding Renée Richards dials down the noise and diligently documents generational shifts in both gender and sports through this precise portrait of a living legend, telling her story just in time. - Ben Rothenberg, author of NAOMI OSAKA Julie Kliegman's insightful, informative biography of iconoclastic ophthalmologist turned tennis pro Renée Richards--the world's most famous trans woman in the 1970s--couldn't be more timely or relevant today in light of the current culture wars over trans people in sports. - Susan Stryker, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of TRANSGENDER HISTORY An elegant, meticulous investigation of one of the most intriguing people in tennis history. Kliegman explores the gap between gender politics past and present to poignant and thought-provoking effect; this book illuminates not just Richards but an entire society shifting around her. - Giri Nathan, bestselling author of CHANGEOVER Journalist Kliegman (Mind Game) presents a revelatory biography of pioneering trans tennis player Renée Richards that opens with Richards's 1976 outing by "scoop-hungry" broadcaster Richard Carlson (Tucker's father), which prompted "a worldwide media circus." Born in Queens in 1934 to a family she describes as a "hot-bed of craziness," Richards had a troubled relationship with gender from a young age. There was "forced cross-dressing" by her mother, as well as her own fulfilling experiments with her sister's clothes ("It had the taste of serenity about it," Richards recalls). The author follows Richards's stop-start transition (she sometimes presented as male) and her success in her day job as an ophthalmologist alongside her rise as a tennis player and her experiences after her outing, from transphobic players wearing shirts that read "I AM A REAL WOMAN" to supportive responses from the general public, her medical colleagues, and other women athletes like Billie Jean King. Richards's groundbreaking fight to continue competing shockingly collides, in Kliegman's telling, with Richards's current opinion, at age 90, that trans women should not compete with cis women if they went through puberty. "Gobsmacked" by Richards's views, the author, who is trans, wrestles with the stark contradictions in "what Richards has wanted for herself... versus what she finds appropriate for other[s]." The result is as much a paradoxical portrait of a reluctant forerunner as it is a fraught intergenerational debate. - PUBLISHERS WEEKLY (starred review) A fresh look at a tennis pro who is "largely lost to history." Renée Richards made a splash in 1977 when she sued to be allowed to compete in the U.S. Women's Open and won her case. The former Richard Raskind, an ophthalmologist and fervent amateur tennis player from New York, underwent gender-affirming surgery in 1975 and then, taking on the name of Renée Richards, at age 41, moved to California and worked in ophthalmology there. The next year, she quit her job in medicine in order to pursue a professional career in women's tennis, earning the support of prominent figures like Billie Jean King along the way. Kliegman (Mind Game: An Inside Look at the Mental Health Playbook of Elite Athletes, 2024) follows Richards from a childhood filled with tennis and "fantasizing about being a girl," through marriage and the birth of a child, the decision to transition, and then a relatively brief tennis career, a return to practicing medicine, and a retirement focused on golf and friendship. Drawing on other publications and Richards' autobiographical writings, as well as on interviews with the now-91-year-old Richards and her friends and associates, Kliegman crafts an absorbing and intriguingly complex portrait of Richards' evolution. They view Richards as a "trans pioneer," but they are nevertheless initially intimidated by Richards' "prickly, protective exterior." Kliegman, who is nonbinary and transgender, is "floored," as well, to realize that Richards has changed her position and says: "I believe that having gone through male puberty disqualifies transgender women from the female category in sports." Yet the author writes, "Richards's opinion was stark and straightforward, something I'd come to expect from her. She didn't hedge her comments, except to make clear that the conversation and findings on the subject are, of course, ongoing." Besides, Richards said, "Why should I say anything otherwise? I've got two feet in the grave. I don't have to pull my punches." Places a trailblazing athlete's life story within a valuable and compelling context. - Kirkus Reviews No topic seems to dominate professional sports like the debate over the rights of transgender people to participate in everything from high-school track to the Olympics. Into that fray comes sports journalist Kliegman's biography of Renée Richards, the first out transgender woman to compete in professional tennis. This comprehensive look at Richards and her life is also a history lesson on transgender rights and the ongoing fight for LGBTQ+ equality. Richards is a compelling subject, and Kliegman doesn't shy away from sharing their own feelings about the contradictory way Richards has talked about transgender women in sports or how Richards' feelings have changed from when she sued the United States Tennis Association after she was not permitted to compete in the 1976 women's U.S. Open. Richards makes it clear she doesn't want to be seen as the spokesperson for trans rights. But she is very open and honest with her feelings about her tennis career, her abusive childhood, and becoming a talented and well regarded ophthalmologist. Kliegman is a compassionate and thoughtful interviewer, and their conversations with Richards are enlightening. Richards may be a complicated person, but her contribution to the advancement of transgender rights can't be overstated. Not to be missed. - Stephanie Howes, Booklist (starred review) Renée Richards made headlines fifty years ago when she became the first openly transgender player to compete in professional tennis. She played in the 1977 U.S. Open, though she lost in the first round in singles, and made it to the finals in doubles. Finding Renée Richards chronicles her life growing up in Queens to her career as an eye surgeon. She is an overlooked figure in American sports history, and Julie Kliegman's insightful biography finally shines a spotlight on her. - TOWN & COUNTRY Publisher Marketing: "Not to be missed." --Stephanie Howes, Booklist (starred review) A Town & Country Must-Read Book of Summer 2026 The candid, definitive biography of professional tennis's first openly transgender player, Renée Richards, featuring never-before-seen archival photos and untold stories nearly lost to history, until now. Fifty years ago, tennis player Renée Richards made international headlines in her fight to compete in the women's draw of the 1977 US Open--marking the first time a trans athlete sued to participate in professional sports in the gender category with which they identify. Renée eventually won her case. Though she lost in the first round of the singles tournament, she and her tennis partner made it to the finals in doubles, losing to Martina Navratilova and her partner. Finding Renée Richards chronicles Richards's extraordinary life, moving from her tumultuous upbringing in Queens, New York, to her career as a successful eye surgeon; her years as a star tennis player to her role as a transgender pioneer. Now in her nineties, Renée remains a complex figure: A person who changed the sports world forever yet questions the place of trans athletes in that world today. GLAAD award-nominated sports journalist Julie Kliegman deftly probes these contradictions, drawing on intimate interviews and offering critical reflections on what is at stake for athletes, fans, and the queer community today, at a time when trans participation in sports is more hotly contested--and condemned--than ever before. Finding Renée Richards includes a 20-page photo insert featuring never-before-seen archival images. Review Citations:
Contributor Bio:Kliegman, Julie |