“Life is worth living, if you really try,” wrote the late humorist Horace Sims, “if you don’t let good things pass you by.”
A cheerful chronicler of life’s “good things” for most of his life, Sims’ writings appeared in various newspapers and magazines, including The Baptist Courier. With this issue, we are pleased to begin republishing the best of Sims’ stories and essays from his “At Large” column, which ran in the Courier from 1996 until his death in 1999.
“This is an opportunity to introduce Horace Sims to a new generation of readers, many of them young pastors,” said Courier editor Don Kirkland. “As a pastor himself, Horace touched hundreds of lives during his ministry. As a writer and storyteller, he connected with thousands more.
“New readers will learn to appreciate Horace’s easy and unaffected writing style. Longtime readers will enjoy revisiting such memorable stories as ‘Swatty Wasp,’ ‘Faulty Zipper,’ and, of course, ‘Whistling at Snakes.'”
“Whistling at Snakes,” Sims’ account of his attempt to keep (imagined and real) snakes at bay while preaching at a Lowcountry revival, later became a book by the same title. Originally published by The Baptist Courier in 1999 after Sims’ death, “Whistling at Snakes” – which contains all of Sims’ material previously published in The Baptist Courier, along with many other stories, essays and poems published elsewhere – went through two subsequent printings and sold more than 8,000 copies. Proceeds from book sales went to Sims’ wife, Jane, who still lives in Greenwood.
Because the book’s title has become synonymous with its author, “Whistling at Snakes” will also be the standing head for Sims’ “reintroduction” to Courier readers, Kirkland said.
Many of the stories will feature drawings by Thomas Addison, an Upstate artist who illustrated the “Whistling at Snakes” book and who draws “Sand Dollar Cove,” a children’s page featuring the adventures of Seamore Seahorse and his friends, published in The Baptist Courier.
Also, the Courier will be creating a “Whistling at Snakes” section at BaptistCourier.com, where readers can browse a large collection of Horace Sims’ writings.
America’s humorist, Mark Twain, said that time is the “true test of humor.”
Eight years (and counting) after his death, Horace Sims’ humor still zeroes in on the funny bone.
“It’s timeless,” said Kirkland. “This is just funny stuff.”