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II
In examining the Southern Literary Gazette for Simms's contributions, one quickly discovers that the editor of the Gazette was almost literally the author of the Gazette. Some idea of how great a portion of the magazine is his own work can be gained from the fact that no fewer than twenty-eight of the forty-one poems in the first volume were written by this amazingly facile young man. And because his partner, James Wright Simmons, contributed at least six of the thirteen poems not ascribed to Simms, it is apparent that the two editors wrote at least eighty per cent of the verse to appear in their joint venture. Indeed, the only poem in the first volume of the Gazette that definitely can be assigned to someone other than Simms or Simmons is William Henry Timrod's "Time's Trophies."[22]
Probably the two young co-editors wrote just as high a proportion of prose in the first volume as they did of the poetry, but the authorship of the prose contributions is exceedingly difficult to establish because (except in rare cases) there are not even pseudonyms or initials to serve as clues. There is no reason, however, to believe that Simms and Simmons (particularly Simms) were any less prolific in writing prose than poetry. On the contrary, if indeed they were hard pressed for contributors, they probably were forced to write many last-minute articles to fill in vacant pages in their journal. At any rate, it seems safe to assume that Simms wrote far more prose for the six numbers in the first volume than the seven titles (not including book reviews) that definitely can be ascribed to him.
Upon taking over the sole editorship of the Gazette at the beginning of the new series, Simms was faced with the problem either of getting more contributors or of writing his magazine practically alone. And again, either by choice or by necessity, he seems to have borne the
In all, then, Simms's contributions — probable and proved, to both new series and old — number 101, still excluding all book reviews and notices for correspondents or subscribers. These 101[23] contributions embrace sixty-four poems, twenty-three essays, nine sketches (as Simms liked to call his brief short stories), and the five "Chronicles of Ashley River" — a series of tales of colonial Indian warfare. Almost half of these contributions are unsigned in any fashion; the remainder are signed with fourteen pseudonyms[24] as follows: "Alwyn," one; "Amand," two; "E.," nine; "Florio," two; "G.," thirteen; "Linus," four; "M.," nine; "Mary," one; "P.," two; "R. H.," one; "S.," two; "Vidal," one; "Walterboro'," one; and "W. G. S.," four. Six of these noms de plume — "E.," "Florio," "G.," "M.," "P.," and "S.," — had also been used in the Album.
Perhaps the outstanding work in the Southern Literary Gazette is "The Lost Pleiad," sometimes considered the best of Simms's generally inane poetry. This earliest version is essentially the same poem collected in Poems Descriptive, Dramatic, Legendary and Contemplative (1853), although Simms expanded it from forty-four to fifty-three lines and revised (even rewrote) many individual lines. In nearly every case the revision improved the poem. "The Lost Pleiad" in any version stands far above the other poetry in the Southern Literary Gazette, most of which is mediocre. One wonders if the success of "The Lost Pleiad" could have had any bearing on Simms's choice of Pleiades as the title for the new journal he edited for James S. Burges. The title (both of the poem and of the magazine) perhaps suggests that the work was intended primarily for women readers.
Probably the best of the other Simms poems in the Southern Literary Gazette are those that he selected for the 1853 and the 1860 editions of his poems, among which are "The Streamlet," "The Spring," "Fancy," "Morning in the Forest," "Lights of Hearts and Love," "Lines" (beginning "My life is in the yellow leaf"), "Concealed Character," "The Grave in the Forest," and a few of his "Songs" and "Sonnets." Also worthy of comment is "Great is the Yemassee," a poem included in the second of the "Chronicles of Ashley River": "Great is the Yemassee" is the original of the highly effective "Mighty is the Yemassee" which appears in Chapter XXII of The Yemassee (1835).
But if Simms did not write a piece of prose fiction for the Gazette equal in merit with "The Lost Pleiad," his sketches and tales taken as a group far surpass his poems taken collectively. The five "Chronicles of Ashley River," in which Simms depicted "one of those sad and grievous encounters between the whites and the savages of the western wilderness" (n.s., I, 176), anticipate his novels of Indian warfare in colonial South Carolina, The Yemassee and The Cassique of Kiawah. Sergeant Rory M'Alister, a loquacious but manly Irishman with heavy brogue, and Redfoot, a cunning, intelligent Yemassee chief who speaks perfect English, are both well-conceived characters. The "Chronicles" are episodic and melodramatic but nevertheless display some of the author's skill as a narrator.
In "Indian Sketch" (later revised, expanded, and retitled "Oakatibbe; or the Choctaw Sampson") Simms made some interesting comments on the distorted portrayals of Indian character in contemporary novels and poems:
Another of the more interesting pieces of fiction in the Southern Literary Gazette is the sketch entitled "A Picture of the Sea." One wonders if Poe, who, as Sergeant Edgar A. Perry, was stationed at Fort Moultrie near Charleston in 1828, did not read this tale in the December number of the Gazette.[26] If so, certain passages in "A Picture of the Sea" may have given him the germ for his own "MS. Found in a Bottle," which in 1833 won the story contest conducted by the Baltimore Saturday Visitor. The similarities between these two supernatural tales of the sea are in some ways too striking to be ignored: both are narrated in the first person by a ship passenger who professes disbelief in superstition, but is awed by it; in both a sudden furious storm strikes after the sea has taken on a mysterious foreboding appearance; in both a huge ship manned by immortals (the "Flying Dutchman" theme) suddenly and unaccountably appears during the storm to crash down upon and sink the narrator's ship; in both there are at first two survivors, one of whom later is killed, and in both the narrator (the sole survivor) faces certain death, which fact presents a peculiar problem for the author. Simms got out of this difficulty in the conventional manner — by having the narrator awaken from a dream; Poe solved the problem much more artistically by putting to use the idea made explicit by his title. There is no question of plagiarism, of course, because Poe (granted that he had seen Simms's story) used his own genius to carve a new tale from the mere framework supplied by Simms. But "A Picture of the Sea" would be no discredit to any writer: the descriptions of the storm and of the frightening appearance of the phantom ship are vivid and terrifying; the grim struggle to death between the unheroic narrator and the other survivor over possession of a spar large enough to support only one of them is an early example of Simms's realism.[27]
Among the best of the other tales in the Southern Literary Gazette are "The Cypress Swamp," "The Fisherman — A Fact," and "Omens of War — A Recollection," all three signed with the pseudonym, "E." Simms obviously incorporated some of "The Cypress Swamp" — which is in reality a mere descriptive sketch — into those scenes in The Partisan that have their setting in the South Carolina lowlands swamps.[28] "The Fisherman — A Fact" is a delightful story of a Southern gentleman who attempts to recover the fortune he has lost through folly and hard luck by fishing each day for a water-buried treasure, which he hopes to ensnare on his fishing hook. His strange actions convince his Negro assistants that he is the devil himself "'wid a big fishing line in 'e hand, ready for hook your poor spirit, 'fore 'e lef your body'" (n.s., I, 244). Humor and irony were not Simms's fortes, but in this tale he handled both much better than he was wont to do. "Omens of War — A Recollection" is another early treatment by Simms of a Revolutionary War theme. It has to do with a veteran of the Revolution who in 1776 had seen a vision of approaching war similar to the phenomenon witnessed by the citizens of a little town in interior South Carolina sometime during "the summer of eighteen hundred and eleven, a short time before the declaration of the war with Great Britain" (n.s., I, 179).
Other stories deserving mention include those demonstrating Simms's great fondness for German literature. One, "The Dead Lover," published anonymously in the February, 1829, number, is a ghost story based partly on Burger's "Lenore" and partly on the Faust legend.[29] "The Dead Lover" ranks higher as a work of art than does the greatly expanded version published in 1837 under the title "The Spirit Bridegroom." Most of the mystery and suggestive power of the original are
In fact, although Professor Cardwell has pointed out that in Charleston "Knowledge of German, to all literary purposes, was practically non-existent in the earlier years of the nineteenth century" (pp. 32-33), there are other indications in the Southern Literary Gazette that Simms was quick to perceive the great potentialities in the study of German literature. One finds awareness on Simms's part (in the essay entitled "German Literature") that "At present there is, perhaps, no portion of Literary history of more importance to us, than that of Germany. Rising as we are into a state of refined Literature, and about to establish for ourselves a national character, it must be advantageous to examine those principles by the adoption of which her people have risen up to an independence of thought, and have become eminent in
For purposes of discussion, Simms's essays and critical notices can probably best be treated together. The essays are of almost no importance as works of literature, because it is obvious that most of them were written to be mere space-fillers. Some few, however, like most of the reviews, are interesting in that they reflect the author's opinions on literary or cultural matters or in that they pertain to editorial policy. An essay of the latter type is the "Introduction" to the first volume — an essay which obviously must embody ideas that both Simms and Simmons held and had discussed together. In the opening paragraph the editors made it clear that one of their purposes was to condemn American dependence upon and imitation of British literary taste:
In closing their "Introduction" the editors asserted that "it will be their earnest and zealous endeavour to give to the Southern Literary Gazette a character as sterling as may be consistent with the nature and the ends implied and embraced in a monthly paper devoted to the Fine Arts and general Literature." To fulfill this pledge, Simms and Simmons announced that "they will consider it their bounden duty to exercise a rigid censorship, not less over the manners than the matter
Thoughts of his women subscribers may also have prompted Simms's highly complimentary remarks about "Female Editors" in the seventh number of the new series. The essay is definitely designed to please and to flatter women readers as well as the women editors involved. "A new epoch," Simms began, "may be noted in the Literature of the United States, at this time; and one, calculated, as well from its novelty as interest, to excite no little wonder and admiration. We mean the Editorship of sundry Literary Journals, by Ladies. . . ." He singled out for particular praise two magazines "edited by Ladies, who, no doubt, are fully as handsome and delightful, as they are intelligent. . . . The Journals we refer to, are 'The Ladies Magazine' edited by Mrs. Sarah J. Hale, and 'The Bower of Taste,' by Mrs. Katharine A. Ware. . . . they do high credit to the fair conductors, and are well worthy the patronage of the fairer portion of the community. We hope they have it" (n.s., I, 167-168).
The unsigned essay "Modern Biography" in the December, 1828, Gazette calls contemporary biographers to task for carelessness in their art. In the light of Simms's later efforts at biography, the following comments seem worthy of record:
Some of Simms's most significant remarks, however, appear in the piece entitled "Modern Criticism" (n.s., I, 173-174). In this essay he took his stand for "fair and impartial criticism," the benefits from which "can no more be doubted than the common advantages which result from education." He defined
Perhaps the most sensational piece of criticism in the Southern Literary Gazette is the review of Leigh Hunt's Lord Byron and His Contemporaries. Simms was quick to rush to the defense of the darling of his magazine, Byron, who "is hallowed time and again in criticism and is constantly imitated" (Cardwell, p. 208) in the pages of the Gazette. He set the tone for his appraisal of Hunt's work in his opening sentence: "Really these pages are not calculated to inspire the reader with the most exalted opinion of human nature: a very sorry picture on the contrary do they present of its infirmities, its meanness and its malice." Later he pointed out the great damage Hunt had done to Byron under the pretense of friendship:
Scott was idolized almost as much as was Byron. In reviewing Anne of Geierstein, or the Maiden of the Mist Simms tried to put into practice his theory that a critic "must not regard the person writing, but the thing written." Although Simms openly admired (and acknowledged his own debt to) "the truly astonishing and seemingly unfailing powers of a man, who is the wonder of this, and must be that of every succeeding age," he did not "pretend or affect to believe the present productions of this wonderful man's pen, as good as his secondrate previous writings . . ." (n.s., I, 126).
Simms found little to his liking in the well-known last novel of one of the great figures in eighteenth-century English literature, Henry Fielding. According to Simms, the defect of Amelia, which first had been published in 1751, "is its utter want of plot. The denouement, such as it is, turns, as it were, upon a sort of casualty, which is contrary to all received notions relative to this class of productions." He admitted, however, that Fielding had "succeeded, not to the life, perhaps, so much as the letter of his fancy" in his attempt "to draw the character of a perfect wife." "The rest of the characters," he added, "are mere sketches, or glimpses of our moral nature. There is not one elaborate or well drawn picture, no 'emphasis and thinking' about any of the persons . . ." (n.s., I, 15).
Although French was almost certainly the most widely read foreign literature in early nineteenth-century Charleston (Cardwell, p. 14), there is little discussion of the literature of France within the covers of the successive volumes of the Southern Literary Gazette. High respect for the French is indicated, however, by the fact that the critical judgment of Mme. de Stael was used by a writer in the Gazette to support his own defense of modern drama (I, 89); then, too, the essay on "The Fine Arts" includes a discussion of both Grecian and French drama. Spanish literature also received attention: essays on that subject appear in both the September 15 and October 15 numbers of the new series (n.s., I, 205-206 and 259-260).
Naturally, however, most of the critical comments in a journal devoted to the encouragement of national letters pertain to American writers. One of the early reviews deals with Notions of the Americans (1828), "another leaf" to Cooper's "brilliant laurel." Characteristically Simms (for he doubtless was the reviewer) praised the book for its "method" and for its "style," but also pointed out that "Mr. Cooper is singularly, we had almost said, ludicrously minute in some of his descriptions. . . . we are informed that you have 'egress from and ingress to the house, by its front and rear!' This is indeed new, and quite extraordinary." Simms later drew an interesting comparison between Cooper and Irving:
Despite his admiration for Byron, Simms nevertheless felt that the English poet had exerted a bad influence upon English and American poetry in general. In heaping praise upon the Sketches of N. P. Willis in September, 1828, he commented:
'Link'd with one virtue and a thousand crimes,'
have been the theme of tears and lamentations . . . . Poetasters . . . found enough in the 'gigantic melancholy' of the moody 'Harold' to dazzle them into a path which they could not pursue and dreaded to depart from . . . .
The evil of this school so lately, if not still so fashionable in England, however it might have become a model to American writers, did them but little injury; not from any want of defect in the system itself, but [from] the almost total absence of any thing like . . . poetical character in America . . . .
This last observation was certainly well-founded, Simms remarked, "if we are to consider Mr. Percival's last Clio, (No. 3) as the clever work of our cleverest verse maker."[34] He added, however, that he had "long since ventured to dissent from the received 'lex scripta' of our friends at the North and his fellow citizens, in assigning that preference to Mr. Bryant. . . . We look forward to better things, particularly when a work so clever in promise as the 'Sketches' before us, is the subject of our present remarks."
Simms pointed out, however, that the "scriptural" character "which Mr. Willis has endeavored to give his poetry" follows the leadership of another misguided school — that of the popular English poetess, Mrs. Felicia Dorothea Hemans:
The fashion lately introduced by Mrs. Hemans is too generally the rage not to continue, at least for a while; and like all other new schools it will be destroyed, whatever may be its merits, by its excessive abuse. The thing is quite overdone — it is ridden down — we have now nothing but dreams and wanderings, vague, confused, and where young poetesses are concerned, certainly very indiscreet . . . .
There is too much of this wandering in the poetry of Mr. Willis (I, 49-51).
Later, Simms's treatment of Willis was not to be so kindly. In the July 1, 1829, number of the new series of the Gazette Simms stated that "the journals which have heretofore picked only the bones of unhappy authors, have now beg[u]n to pick one another." Because he saw "no reason why this should not be the case," Simms then proceeded to pick the bones of Willis and his American Monthly Magazine. He insisted, however, that "It is only because we are satisfied of the ability of Mr. Willis and his contributors to do well, that we have been disposed to make them do better" (n.s., I, 73, 78).[35]
Perhaps the review in the Gazette that best illustrates the editor's plea for regionalism appears in the June 1 number of the new series. The book under question is Edgehill: A Novel "by a Virginian,"[36] but the volume in hand is simply used as a springboard for a discussion of Southern publishing and literature. The notice opens as follows:
Tales and Sketches, by a Country Schoolmaster, a book published anonymously by William Leggett, "late editor of the New York Critic," prompted Simms to comment on the disadvantages under which an author turned editor labors. "The Sketches," he wrote, "are just such as he [Leggett] may be supposed to have written, while conducting a Literary Journal." He pointed out that Leggett possessed talent: that if he "carefully arranged his materials and methodized his plan," he could write a novel of the West "fully as interesting and excellent as 'The Prairie.'" Simms concluded by saying: "If he will but let the 'Critic' go to the _____ in peace, and have nothing to do with any other Editorial chair; (an occupation, vile enough, heaven knows,) . . . take up Flint's books on the West,[37] and hatch a decent plot before he puts pen to paper, we shall have much pleasure, in commencing our next volume, to open with 'The Perogue' an American (?) Romance, in two volumes, & c. & c." (n.s., I, 102).
Because the Southern Literary Gazette had promised its genteel readers that it would "exercise a rigid censorship" over morals, manners, and matters, it is not surprising to find Simms — a firm believer in the moral function of literature — saying of James K. Paulding's Tales of the Good Woman — "we do not know that we have ever read a volume of a more exalted, purely toned morality. Each story . . . has in view the inculcation of a sound rule, or the suppression of an improper principle" (n.s., I, 157-158).
Simms's "Indian Sketch" is not the only writing in the Southern Literary Gazette that illustrates his interest in and knowledge of the American Indian. In a long review entitled "North American Indians"[38] in the initial number, Simms stated in greater detail the convictions that he was to repeat in the "Indian Sketch" two months later:
Nothing has been more misunderstood among us than the Indian character. Like all other subjects of which little is known, and over which
Other writers, and particularly some of late date have fallen into another extreme in discussing the merits of this people. They are represented to be a race only notorious from their habits of filth, drunkenness and dishonesty. They are shewn us as crowded upon the towns with all these several qualities momentarily exhibited before the eyes of the white community. They are described as cunning, sullen, cowardly, revengeful and inhuman; not to be trusted, and only docile and to be depended on, while it is their interest to be so . . . .
The North American Indians, are strictly speaking, a rude and simple race . . . . In regarding them . . . we must carefully avoid both of the extremes already briefly presented. We are neither to worship them as a race of demigods, nor on the other hand to despise them as a horde of brutes . . . . We are not at all disposed to look upon the Indian as a fool. We regard him rather as a rude, uninformed, and unpolished, but still, highly intellectual being: shrewd and if we are so compelled to term it, cunning in the extreme, from a habit of depending solely upon himself even from his childhood . . . (I, 36-38).
Doubtless Simms's travels through the Indian country with his father and his Uncle James during his 1824-1825 visit to Mississippi largely account for his realistic conception of the Indian.[39]
At least one fellow South Carolina author was reviewed by Simms in
the Gazette. A Selection from the Miscellaneous
Writings
of the
In addition to the notice of Harby's Writings, Simms also was editorially concerned with another phase of Charleston's literary culture — its theater. Under the heading "Our Theatre" in the November, 1828, issue, Simms wrote such a stinging criticism of the production then being performed in the Charleston Theatre that the following month it was deemed necessary (probably by Simmons) to announce that "the Editors" did not wholly agree with "the opinions of the correspondent before adverted to, of our November number" (I, 265). There can be little doubt that Simms was the author of the first review since it is signed "M.," a pseudonym he used elsewhere in the Gazette. Apparently the retraction is another example of the older, more business-minded editor having a moderating influence on the less compromising nature of his partner. Simms's initial review is interesting because it voices objections to the "system of Starring," which it termed "totally destructive of every other system of good Theatrical management." "We denounce the present system entirely," Simms added, "as not calculated to satisfy the public, reward the manager, or what is more important, encourage and bring forward dramatic talent in the humbler actors thus kept back, and absolutely ruined by it" (I, 191).
On one occasion Simms is known to have rushed to the defense of the Gazette's highly regarded cross-town rival, the Southern Review. When Robert Walsh[41] irreverently called "the last number of the
Among the "Critical Notices" in the new series of the Southern Literary Gazette, it was customary to include reviews of contemporary magazines as well as of books. The review of the New York Mirror is notable because the Mirror was one of the journals used as a guide in establishing the Album and (probably) the Southern Literary Gazette. As would be expected, Simms had high words of praise for the Mirror, "without exception, the neatest Journal of Literature in the country." He particularly commended the "manly and honest" tone and the "novel courtesy" of the Mirror in dealing with the literature and the politics of the South. Such treatment, he concluded, "will teach us that the prospect is not wholly visionary, which is to bring us into the rank and repute of civilization and exalt us from our present state of barbarism, into equality and esteem" (n.s., I, 127).
Simms's review of the Baltimore Minerva and Emerald, in which he spoke of Rufus Dawes, its editor, as "an American poet of some cleverness" and jokingly complained of the inferior paper on which the Minerva was printed (n.s., I, 24), apparently incited an angry reply from Dawes; Simms treated this answer humorously in his satirical essay entitled "'The Baltimore Minerva and Emerald,' ads. 'Ourselves,'" in which he conducted a mock trial, with Dawes the plaintiff and Simms himself the defendant. The verdict: not guilty on all counts. In conclusion Simms wished "friend DAWES. . . . all manner of success" (n.s., I, 216).
A unique feature in the Gazette is the cutting criticism of Simms's poetry by a correspondent who signed his name "Massachusettensis." A letter to the editor explains how Simms found himself in the unusual position of printing in his own magazine a castigation of his own writings:
Our Own Poetry!
MR. EDITOR—I take advantage of the general conduct of your Journal to require the publication, in the coming number, of the enclosed strictures
MASSACHUSETTENSIS
Immediately below appears the stinging critique in which such phrases as the following abound: "author of small wares," "effusion of youthful prurience and puerility," "foolish and weak favor of a few of his friends," "pertinacious determination of the author, still to thrust himself before the community," and "three volumes of absurd crudities" (n.s., I, 214). Knowing his fun-loving nature, one wonders if Simms did not contrive the whole scheme in an attempt to draw attention to his poetry by obviously exaggerating its faults. Simms must have known that an attack upon anything Southern by a person styled "Massachusettensis" would have enlisted the support of patriotic South Carolinians. At any rate, "Our Own Poetry!" doubtless made good reading for the subscribers to the Southern Literary Gazette.
In the essay entitled "Letters in America" in the second number of the new series, Simms summed up his views on some of the chief faults of American literature. The thing that he insisted on most in the establishment of a national literature was independence — independence from English fashion and English taste. The black picture of American letters is nevertheless tinged with the color of hope:
Of even more concern than the degraded literary taste of the American people was their continued dependence upon England for
Will our fellow citizens [Simms concluded] dare pretend to Independence after this? How can we presume to say that we have shaken off our national vassalage, when this most dishonorable and degrading badge of servitude is hung about us, when we dare not presume to venture an opinion of our own, until we have received the sanction of our former master . . . .
We can never be great or independent until we have shaken off every trace of foreign bondage . . . (n.s., I, 46).
Perhaps it is fitting to close with an excerpt from Simms's "Diablerie — No. 2," in which he good-naturedly described an event that must have occurred all too often during the thirteen months that he sat in the editor's chair of this early Charleston literary periodical:
Of Simms's contributions to the Southern Literary Gazette it may be said that some are remarkably good — some trash. Much of the material was later reworked and published in other magazines or in books. In general, the prose — whether fiction or criticism — is superior to the poetry, although, as has been stated, a few individual poems stand out. But it is Simms the critic who is best revealed in the pages of the Southern Literary Gazette; and despite his youth and inexperience, he emerges as a surprisingly sound and mature judge of literature. Yet until recently his criticism had been almost completely overlooked.[42] But before one comes to a settled conclusion on the accomplishments
Alwyn | "Fancy," I, 386.(PDDLC)[1] |
Amand | "Sonnet" (I will breathe music in the little bell), I, 128. |
"Streamlet, The," I, 280-281. (PDDLC) | |
E.[2] | "Love and Prudence," n.s., 59. |
"Song" (However lone, in after years), n.s., 195. | |
"'Time is ever silently turning his Pages,'" n.s., 87. | |
"To Myra," n.s., 258. | |
"Watchman! What o' the Night?" n.s., 17. | |
Florio | "Recollections," n.s., 128. |
"To _____" (Forgive me, if my looks are sad), n.s., 87.[3] | |
G. | "Adelle's Mouth," I, 264. |
"Allemayne," I, 356. | |
"Charleston," n.s., 118. | |
"Head-Ache," I, 286. | |
"Light of Hearts and Love," n.s., 104. (Poems) | |
"Moonlight," I, 281. | |
"Serenade," I, 185. | |
"Soldier's Farewell, The," n.s., 246. | |
"Song" (Oh! linger yet awhile —), n.s., 59. | |
"Summer Night Wind," I, 220. (SP&P; VOC; PDDLC) | |
"To a Cloud," n.s., 241. | |
"Women," I, 266. | |
Linus[4] | "Adventure, An," I, 47-49. |
"Elegy" (Who lives there now, deserving praise), I, 119. | |
"Petrified City," I, 348-349. | |
"Wilderness, The [Part First]," I, 141-142. | |
"Wilderness, The [Part Second]," I, 206-208. | |
Mary | "Spring, The," I, 297. (Poems) |
P. | "Imitation of a Sonnet of Minzoni's [sic]," n.s., 59. |
"Song" (Oh! frailer than hope or than pleasure), n.s., 160. (Poems) | |
S.[5] | "Roses O'er a Sepulchre," I, 63.[6] |
"Sonnet" (The groves are bending to the mournful breeze), I, 21. | |
Vidal[7] | "Song of the Irish Patriot," I, 215. |
"Ashley River," I, 108-111. (VOC) | |
W.G.S. | "Incident, An," I, 158. |
"Shipwreck, The," I, 149-150. (SP&P) | |
"Stars, The," I, 235-236. (VOC) | |
Unsigned | "April," n.s., 35-36. (SP&P) |
"Canzonet" (The jewell'd brow of night), n.s., 184. (SP&P; Areytos; Poems) | |
"Concealed Character," n.s., 17. (Poems) | |
"Cottage Life," I, 8. (SP&P) | |
"Dirge of the Leaves," n.s., 58. (VOC) | |
"Grave in the Forest," n.s., 58. (Poems; cf. SP&P) | |
"Great is the Yemassee," n.s., 129. (Yemassee) | |
"Last Leaf, The," I, 30. (VOC) | |
"Lines" (My life is in the yellow leaf), n.s., 128. (Poems; SWMMR, II, 106) | |
"Lost Pleiad, The," I, 73-74. (SP&P; VOC; PDDLC; Poems) | |
"Miniature, The," I, 89. (L&OP; PDDLC; Poems; Album, I, 161-162; SWMMR, II, 86) | |
"Morning in the Forest," n.s., 36. (PDDLC) |
("Night's veil is over Ashley . . ."), n.s., 176.[8] | |
"Night-Watching," n.s., 86. (PDDLC) | |
"On the Death of an Obscure Citizen," n.s., 238. (PDDLC) | |
"Sketch, A," n.s., 128. (L&OP) | |
"Song" (I have no joy when thou art far), n.s., 206. (SWMMR, I, 134) | |
"Song" (Tomorrow to-morrow—/The sound on my heart), n.s., 258. (Poems) | |
"Sonnet" (My portrait—would it serve when I am dead), n.s., 17. (Poems; SWMMR, II, 94) | |
"Sonnet" (The heart that is not gentle, has no eye)[9] | |
"Sonnet" (Voices are on the winds—I hear them now), n.s., 160. (PDDLC) | |
"Stanzas" (And thou hast lost dominion's throne), n.s., 161. (SWMMR, I, 317) | |
"Stanzas" (Meeting to sever,), n.s., 87. (Areytos) |
E. | "The Cypress Swamp," n.s., 211-212. |
"The Fisherman—A Fact," n.s., 242-246. | |
"Love and Love-Tokens," n.s., 207-208. | |
"Omens of War—A Recollection," n.s., 179-181. | |
G. | "Literary Societies," I, 58-61. |
M.[10] | "Law School, in South Carolina," n.s., 193-195. |
"Modern Criticism," n.s., 173-175. | |
"Our Theatre," I, 190-192. | |
"Perversion of Man's Powers," n.s., 134-136. | |
"Piety and Virtue," n.s., 68-71. | |
"Slander," n.s., 182-184. | |
"Thanksgiving," n.s., 261-263. | |
"Usury," n.s., 239-240. | |
R. H. | "Errors in Shakspeare's Tempest," I, 186-187.[11] |
Unsigned | "'The Baltimore Minerva and Emerald,' ads. 'Ourselves,'" n.s., 216. |
"Chronicles of Ashley River—No. 1," n.s., 115-116. | |
"__________ No. 2," n.s., 129-130. | |
"__________ No. 3," n.s., 176-178. | |
"__________ No. 4," n.s., 208-210. |
"__________ No. 5," n.s., 247-252. | |
"Critical Notices," passim.[12] | |
"The Dead Lover," I, 282-286. | |
"Diablerie—No. 1," n.s., 119-120. | |
"__________ No. 2," n.s., 143-144. | |
"The Festival of Isis," n.s., 169-173. | |
"Indian Sketch," I, 142-149. | |
"Introduction," I, 1-8. [probably in conjunction with Simmons] | |
"A Picture of the Sea," I, 208-215. |
Unsigned | "Canzonet" (Come with me, sweetest), n.s., 178. |
"Sonnet" (Here on this bank of bruised violets), n.s., 160. | |
"Sonnet" (To-morrow I shall meet a laborer), n.s., 160. | |
"To my Little Daughter," n.s., 103. |
Massachusettensis | "Our Own Poetry!" n.s., 214-215. |
Walterboro' | "Angling," n.s., 257-258. |
Unsigned | "Battle of Fort Moultrie," n.s., 137-142.[14] |
"A Consideration of the Principle of Self-Love," I, 216-219. | |
"Eliza: A Sketch," n.s., 44-45. | |
"Female Editors," n.s., 167-168. | |
"Letters in America," n.s., 46. | |
"The Love of Study," n.s., 18-19. | |
"Modern Biography," I, 221-235. | |
"Shakspeare— 'The Tempest,'" n.s., 202-204. |
Postscript
After "William Gilmore Simms and the Southern Literary Gazette" had been in page proof, the long missing November 1, 1829, number of the Southern Literary Gazette was discovered by a graduate research assistant, Mr. James E. Kibler, Jr., among uncatalogued materials in the Kendall Collection of the South Caroliniana Library. In a brief supplementary article in the next volume of Studies in Bibliography I shall examine the significance of the discovery of this apparently unique copy, containing (as Simms and the Charleston Courier had said it did) the "Confessions of a Murderer," which will be included in Simms's Stories and Tales, scheduled for publication in 1968 in the Centennial Edition of Simms.
J. C. G.
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