Mary Diana Dods

Walter Sholto Douglas (1790–1830), born under the name Mary Diana Dods, was a Scottish writer of books, stories and other works. Despite being assigned a female identity, Douglas lived as a man in his private, public, and work life. Most of his works appeared under the pseudonym David Lyndsay. His name may have been partly inspired by his grandfather's name, Sholto Douglas, 15th Earl of Morton. He was a close friend and confidant of Mary Shelley, and the husband of Isabella Robinson. In 1980, scholar Betty T. Bennett began research that would result in sensationally outing Douglas, connecting his deadname with his writing pseudonym, making the false assertion of Walter being a mentally ill abusive cis woman seizing opportunities otherwise unavailable to him by presenting as a man.

Early life Apparently illegitimate children of George Douglas, the 16th Earl of Morton, Douglas and his older sister Georgiana were raised at two residences – Dalmahoy House, the seat of his father's Scottish estate, and another in London.

Work Some dramas of Lyndsay's appeared in Blackwood's Magazine, as did several of his stories, which have been seen as "very much in the vein of Byron's Oriental tales". Douglas, communicating as Lyndsay, admitted to admiring Byron for his writing, but adamantly denied that he plagiarized his work. Another key work was Dramas of the Ancient World, written at William Blackwood's invitation, which appeared in 1822 as written by David Lyndsay. Tales of the Wild and the Wonderful (1825) was published anonymously, with support from his close friend Mary Shelley. This contributed to the then-current popularization of German fairy-tales.

Douglas, as David Lyndsay, rose in his lifetime to the higher literary circles of England and of France. He seems to have been acquainted with General Lafayette, Lord Byron and Frances Wright. This shows that Douglas' father did not trust his financial responsibility in the same way as his sister's, a limitation that kept both young children in perpetual debt. The debt receipts and bills, however, provide much evidence for the research on Douglas in relation to his personae – Lyndsay and Dods. Through his writing, he began to reach into the literary circles of Lord Byron and Mary Shelley. As Lyndsay, Douglas received criticism and praise for his published work in the magazine. Lyndsay was recognized as a quality, well-read writer by the magazine's critics.

These correspondences reveal some biographical detail. Douglas, writing as Lyndsay, relates details such as his Scottish heritage, his linguistic prowess, and his skill in theatre critique. The connection between Douglas and Lyndsay is clear: Douglas was noted as linguistically gifted in his social spheres, and fluent in French, German, Italian, Latin, and Spanish. Robinson was pregnant by another man, so her marriage to Douglas helped cover the pregnancy's illegitimacy.

In 1827 Shelley helped Douglas and Robinson obtain passports enabling them to travel to Paris under the correct names Mr. and Mrs. Douglas, despite the anti-LGBT political climate. The passport describes Douglas as short, with dark, curly hair and dark eyes. In a book by Eliza Rennie, biographer of Mary Shelley, Douglas is described similarly: "Very sharp and piercing black eyes, a complexion extremely pale and unhealthy... her [sic] figure was short... (Douglas' hair) cropped, curly, short, and thick."

Letters between Mary Shelley and literary acquaintances intimate similar details about Douglas' identity. Because Shelley corresponded with both Lyndsay and Douglas, the obvious similarity in their handwriting confirms their identity as a single writer. One clue comes in a letter Shelley wrote with a large blank space originally indicating to critics that she had simply discontinued one sentence and begun another. However, the phrase is continuous and states, "pray console dear Doddy for [blank space] she is very sorrowful & has reason to be so." Reading the rest of Shelley and Lyndsay's letters in hindsight, and other letters to literary friends, Bennett affirms the proto-trans identity of both Douglas and Lyndsay. Though a contemporary, Mary Elizabeth Clarke, speculated that Douglas was trying to impress the jailers, in truth it was likely an effort to conceal a lack of natural beard growth, and potentially to maintain a male self-image.

Douglas is thought to have died of his ailments between November 1829 and November 1830, after many months in prison.

Legacy Lady Adeline Douglas Wolff's secret stories of how her mother Isabella Robinson's first husband had switched genders might have appealed to her own daughter, the rebellious author Adeline Georgiana Isabel Kingscote, who published several of her first novels under the male pseudonym Lucas Cleve.