Gamel Woolsey

Gamel Woolsey (May 28, 1895 – January 18, 1968) was an American poet and novelist.

Woolsey was born on the Breeze Hill plantation in Aiken, South Carolina, as Elizabeth (Elsa) Gammell Woolsey, but in later years took her middle name, which she shortened to "Gamel" (a Norse word meaning "old"). Her father was planter William Walton Woolsey (1842–1909). The Woolsey branch of the New England Dwight family had influence in the law, the church and education. William had first married Catherine Buckingham Convers, daughter of Charles Cleveland Convers, but she died in 1888. Gamel's aunt, Sarah Chauncey Woolsey – better known by her pen name, Susan Coolidge – wrote the popular Katy series and other children's fiction. Her relations included three presidents of Yale University.

Gamel's mother, Bessie Gammell, was her father's second wife. Bessie was the daughter of William A. Gammell and traced her maternal ancestry to William Washington.

After William died, the family moved to Charleston, where Gamel went to day school.

Despite weak health following an attack of tuberculosis in 1915, Woolsey left home for New York City in about 1921, hoping to be an actress or a writer. Her first known published poem appeared in the New York Evening Post in 1922. The following year she met and married Rex Hunter, a writer and journalist from New Zealand, but they separated after four years.

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