Israel Mowry Saben (March 24, 1870 – October 7, 1950) was an American essayist and journalist[1] who was an early advocate for gender and sexual diversity.[2]
Saben was born into a prominent family in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, the son of Israel Saben and Lydia Jane Albee. Richard Mowry, his father's maternal grandfather, was his great-grandfather. He had a younger sister, Jennie May. He studied at Harvard University, Oxford University, and Heidelberg University.[1]
Saben was on the editorial staff of The New York Times and The Oregonian. Starting in the mid-1930s, he also contributed to The Argonaut, an influential weekly publication in San Francisco.
Saben also served as Assistant Secretary of Labor in the 1920s, when James J. Davis was secretary.[1]
He died in San Francisco in 1950, three weeks after falling ill with a liver condition.[1]
See main article: Jennie June (autobiographer). According to journalist Channing Gerard Joseph, Saben may have been the real identity of the pseudonymous Jennie June, a non-gender-conforming writer who in 1918 published The Autobiography of an Androgyne. Though June altered identifying details in his books to maintain his anonymity, there is considerable overlap with the details of Saben's own life.[2]