DAWN: A Charleston Legend At birth in Sussex, England, Dawn Langley Simmons was identified as a male and was named Gordon Langley Hall. Although she lived as a man for almost 30 years with what she calls her "deep,dark secret," she was, in fact a female with androgynous features. Following gender modification in 1968, Gordon Langley Hall became Dawn Pepita Langley Hall. She married a black Charlestonian, John-Paul Simmons, had a daughter, and was forced to move from South Carolina to New York to escape hostilities directed at her interracial marriage. From her childhood vacations at Sissinghurst, where her mentors, Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson, encouraged her first writings, to her successful career as a writer in New York and Charleston, Dawn Langley Simmons has experienced an extraordinary life of creativity, spent in the company of accomplished writers, actors and artists, including Dame Margaret Rutherford, who adopted her and was regarded by the author as her true "mother." Dawn: A Charleston Legend is a moving, unforgettable true story of love, adversity, tragedy, and, ultimately, the triumph of the human spirit. Back inside flap: Dawn Langley Simmons (nee Gordon Langley Hall) is the author of some eighteen books, including a biography of her surrogate mother, Margaret Rutherford-- A Blithe Spirit. Her other writings include biographies of Rosalyn Carter and Mary Todd Lincoln; Vinnie Ream-- The Girl Who Sculptured Lincoln; Willian, Father of the Netherlands; Osceola; and The Sawdust Trail: A History of American Evangelism.

She lives in Hudson, New York, near her dauther Natasha Simmns and grandchildren Damian Patrick Hall Simmons and Tamara Miguel Hall Simmons.