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Notes
"Charleston Periodicals, 1795-1860: A Study in Literary Influences, with a Descriptive Check List of Seventy-five Magazines" (University of North Carolina Ph.D. thesis, 1936), p. 212.
The Letters of William Gilmore Simms, ed. Mary C. Simms Oliphant, Alfred Taylor Odell, and T. C. Duncan Eaves (1952), I, lxv. Vols. II and III (in a series of five) were published in 1953 and 1954, respectively; all vols. hereinafter cited as Letters. I am indebted to Mr. Salley for the use of his Simms library, including the Album, and to Professor Eaves for his advice in the preparation of this article. For a study of Simms's editorship of the Album and four other magazines, see J. C. Guilds, Jr., "Simms as a Magazine Editor, 1825-1845: With Special Reference to his Contributions" (Duke University Ph.D. thesis, 1954).
Letters, I, 283. One other "Literary Journal" that Simms edited before 1830 is the Southern Literary Gazette, 1828-1829. Simms's statement that he began his editorial career at "quite short of eighteen" suggests (1) that he may have edited yet another journal of earlier date than the Album, or (2) that he was predating the Album—a mistake common enough among authors reflecting upon their youthful work. I have searched the Charleston newspapers of 1822-1823 without finding a clue to a magazine Simms might possibly have edited. Simms himself gave conflicting evidence; on October 16, 1841, he wrote to Lawson: "When I was 18 I commenced editing, and continued to do so until I was 23—either in literary or political journals" (Letters, I, 285)—which seems his most accurate statement; yet Evert A. Duyckinck quotes Simms as saying, ". . . at seventeen I was editing a juvenile periodical . . ." (National Portrait Gallery of Eminent Americans, 2nd ed., New York [1867?], I, 514).
Album, I, 138-139. There is reason to believe that Simms is "Numpo." "Wigwam" as used in the first paragraph was a favorite expression with him. For example, see his letter of April 6, 1843, to James Lawson, Letters, I, 346.
William Stanley Hoole, who believed the Album never materialized, stated in his unpublished Duke University dissertation (1934): "I have a strong feeling that Simms and others under the guidance of the elder Timrod had an interest in the proposed Album . . ." ("The Literary and Cultural Background of Charleston, 1830-1860," p. 307n.). Simms later spoke highly of William Henry Timrod (see "Early Writers of South Carolina," XIX Century, II [February, 1870], 695-696). If there were other editors of the Album, however, it seems more probable that they were young men of Simms's age. For Simms's description of the activities of "a host of juvenile writers" in Charleston in the early 1820's, see "Reminiscences of South Carolina," XIX Century, II (May, 1870), 920-924.
Southern Patriot and Commercial Advertiser, June 9, 1825. The following "Terms to Subscribers" were announced: "25 cents monthly, Payable on receiving the first Number of each Month."
"A.B.C." closed his letters by suggesting "as a motto for your Album, the celebrated saying of SYMS. Discipulis [sic] est prioris, posterior dies." The quotation is from Publilius Syrus, a writer of Latin Mimes of about 44 B.C. The printing of "Syms" for "Syrus" probably is simply an amusing typographical error, but the possibility exists that it is a play upon Simms's name. In addition to whatever interest these letters might have aroused, the "Prospectus" appeared consistently in the Southern Patriot (sometimes on the front page) from June 9 to July 21, 1825.
It seems probable that at least the first number of the second volume was issued. Informing their subscribers of the method of payment for the new volume, the editors wrote in the December 24 issue: "Our first number of the Second Volume, with a Subscription Book, will be sent to our Patrons, who may be disposed to continue on the same terms" (ibid.). A search of the Charleston newspapers of 1826 revealed no mention of the Album.
Perhaps "science" as used in the prospectus means knowledge or learning, the sense in which the word was frequently used by Jefferson in his letters.
Frank Luther Mott, A History of American Magazines, 1741-1850 (New York and London, 1930), p. 321. The Mirror had first been issued on August 2, 1823, with Samuel Woodworth as editor and Morris as publisher. Morris took over both jobs in 1824.
See the following essays in the Album: "On Women" by "Z.," p. 102; "For the Album" by "A.," pp. 118-119; "Idle Hours" by "W.A.," pp. 146-148; "For the Album" by "Common Sense," pp. 163-164; "For the Album" by "W.A.," pp. 173-174; "For the Album" by "Common Sense," pp. 179-180; and "For the Album" by "Richard Threadlace," pp. 187-189. Later, as editor of the Magnolia and the Southern and Western Monthly Magazine and Review, Simms was to have little use for sentimental literature written for women readers.
The exception to prove the rule is the "Translation from the Spanish, of Mr. Letamondi's Opinion on the Education of Women," which appeared in four installments beginning October 15, 1825.
Ibid., I, 170. See also "Editorial Comforts," a humorous presentation of some of the trials of the magazine editor (ibid., I [November 26, 1825], 177-178; [December 3, 1825], 182-185). Simms is probably the author.
See Appendix for a list of Simms's writings in the Album. Of Simms's pseudonyms mentioned in this essay, only "S." has hitherto been attributed to him. See J. Allen Morris, "The Stories of William Gilmore Simms," American Literature, XIV (March, 1942), 28n.
The books reviewed are The Leper of Aost, author and date of publication unknown; The Christian Indian; or, Times of the First Settlers (New York, 1825), author unknown; James McHenry, The Pleasures of Friendship: A Poem in Two Parts (Philadelphia, 1825); and George Houston, ed., National Tales, 2 vols. (New York, 1825).
The first sketch, "First Love," appeared July 16, 1825; the second, "The Queen of May," July 3; and the third, bearing no title, July 30.
The Gothic strain continues, however, in those stories and novels by Simms which in a letter to Griswold he termed works of "passion & imagination"—Martin Faber, Confession, Carl Werner, The Wigwam and the Cabin, and Castle Dismal. See Letters, II, 224.
"Country Comforts" is signed "E—," a pseudonym that Simms used again while editor of the Southern Literary Gazette in 1828-1829 and of the Southern and Western in 1845. "P.," the pen name attached to "The Return," was likewise employed by Simms in the Southern Literary Gazette.
Album, I (October 29, 1825), 137. If Simms is the writer, this quotation is an interesting self-portrait.
See "Advertisement to the Second Edition," Martin Faber, the Story of a Criminal; and other Tales, 2 vols. (New York, 1837), I, xi-xii.
"To the Reader," Album, I (October 15, 1825), 122. Contributions tentatively assigned to Simms are listed in the Appendix.
Both the Southern Literary Gazette and the Southern and Western contain contributions by Simms signed "M."
See "A Chat in the Symposium," Cosmopolitan: An Occasional, I (1833), 17-24, 41-46, 69-74; and Letters, I, 449.
When I have found that a contribution was republished—often with extensive revision—in another volume by Simms, I have indicated the republication in parentheses. The following is a key to the symbols used:
- Areytos Areytos: or, Songs of the South (1846)
- EL Early Lays (1827)
- L&OP Lyrical and Other Poems (1827)
- PDDLC Poems Descriptive, Dramatic, Legendary and Contemplative (1853)
- Poems Simms's Poems, Areytos or Songs and Ballads of the South, With other Poems (1860)
- SLG Southern Literary Gazette, 1828-1829
- SP&P Southern Passages and Pictures (1839)
- SWMMR Southern and Western Monthly Magazine and Review, 1845
Many poems signed "Florio" are preserved in Simms's scrapbooks in the South Caroliniana Library of the University of South Carolina.
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