Drags, fags and trans-women were attracted to the Big Apple because they were able to find work as impersonators in a small number of Lower East Side clubs.

Decades before Stonewall, they occupied the margins of society, determined to live as they pleased, despite of the attentions of the police. Sometimes reduced to stealing to get their costumes, these girls were unstoppable, fearless and fabulous.

When a cache of their letters were discovered, these individuals were given a voice where they had traditionally been silenced. The letters they wrote bear witness to a time when gay community was hard to find.

Blending social, political and cultural history with memoir, this book is an unforgettable and deeply moving encounter with a generation of incredible survivors and a necessary account of how modern drag culture was born.