I’m always excited when I see that a new book by William Vollmann is being published. This article in the Times, however, is a jaw-dropper:
As far as writers go, William T. Vollmann is a man’s man. In pursuit of a story, he has roughed it with the mujahedeen in Afghanistan and survived a land mine explosion in Bosnia. He singed his eyebrows off and nearly froze to death exploring the magnetic North Pole. In Thailand, he rescued a teenage girl from sex slavery by kidnapping her from a pimp.
So it may be surprising that Mr. Vollmann, the absurdly prolific author and National Book Award winner, is also a devoted cross-dresser. He has developed a female alter ego named Dolores, whom he refers to in the third person.
A Celebration of Reading 