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
major responsibility for keeping the pages filled. To the eleven available
numbers of the new series, he contributed at least thirty-two poems, ten
essays, three "sketches" or brief short stories, and one series of tales
published in five installments — not to mention a new section
entitled
"Critical Notices," which must have been almost altogether his own work.
Furthermore, on the basis of internal evidence four other poems and eight
other prose titles can probably be added to this impressive list.
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:
Nothing can be more amusing to one who is at all intimate with the
Indian character, than the various pictures which are given them by the Poet
and the novelist. Nothing more idle and extravagant. The glory of the
Indians (as they were) is the hunt and the battle field; and in robbing them
of the extent of country sufficient for the one pursuit, and exercising such
a powerful restraint upon them, as a ready and well-armed frontier, in the
other, we seem to have robbed them of all of that pride, love of adventure
and warlike enthusiasm, which is the only romance, the North American
Indian ever had in his character (I, 144).
Already, then, Simms's interest in the Indian and his insistence upon
realistic treatment of history had combined to make him highly critical of
the romantically conceived "savage."
[25]
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
destroyed by the over elaboration of details in the story in its later form. If,
however, the number of the
Gazette containing the
"Confessions
of a Murderer" were available, that tale would certainly prove the most
interesting in the entire series. Even without the opportunity to examine the
"Confessions of a Murderer" at first hand, however, one is not hard pressed
to find a clue as to its probable inspiration. In February, 1829, there
appeared in the
Gazette the first of two installments of "The
Criminal, from the German of Schiller."
[30] "The Criminal," like
Martin
Faber (and apparently, then, also like the "Confessions of a
Murderer"), attempts to show how environment and circumstance can make
a criminal — even a murderer — of an ordinary man.
[31] Both "The Criminal" and
Martin
Faber are psychological studies in the degeneration of character, and
both carry the implication that society is
at least partly to blame for the crimes committed by the hero. Thus there
are similarities in setting, tone, plot, and purpose in "The Criminal" and
Martin Faber; there is Simms's own assertion of the close
resemblance of
Martin Faber to the "Confessions of a
Murderer"; there is knowledge that Simms was a great admirer of Schiller;
and there is the fact that a translation of
Der Verbrecher was
readily available in the pages of the
Gazette itself: the
accumulated evidence leads one to believe that Simms had Schiller's story
in mind and perhaps in hand when he sat down to write the "Confessions
of a Murderer."
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
the several departments of learning" (n.s., I, 197). In later years Simms
was to write appreciative criticisms of Goethe and Fouque as well as of
Schiller.
[32]
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:
Periodical Literature has for the last century been liberally patronised
by the taste of the reading public; and in Great Britain the number of
quarterly, monthly and weekly journals and gazettes has been continually
on the increase; so much so, indeed, as almost to have exceeded the
demand for such works. The time has arrived, or is fast approaching, when
a similar taste in this country shall call for the supply of similar mental
aliment to be furnished from among ourselves; and supposing this stage in
our literary advancement as a people, to have been reached or to be near
at hand, it may not be amiss to offer some reflections upon the subject. The
first remark that suggests itself, on taking a survey of the actual state and
prospective advancement of our literature, is, the unfortunate relation in
which we stand, and seem almost unavoidably to have been placed, with
regard to the 'Mother Country,' — as we are still pleased to
designate a
soil which first ejected us from its
bowels, and afterwards put in requisition its energies to destroy us —
on
matters which have been viewed by every people who have attained to any
thing like a national character, as of the very last importance: — our
laws, and the literature which is necessarily so intimately connected with
them (I, 1).
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
of their pages. . . ." With this goal in view the editors hoped that
contributors would "bestow such care and attention upon the articles they
may send for insertion . . ., as may render them not wholly unworthy of
the taste and intelligence, which . . . the Editors have every reason to
believe will be brought to the perusal of this and the ensuing numbers . .
." (I, 8). This emphasis upon the moral as well as the aesthetic function of
the work again indicates that the
Southern Literary Gazette
was
designed for parlor reading by fashionable Charleston ladies and
gentlemen.
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:
There is perhaps no branch of modern literature, so completely
systematized as the art of writing men's lives — no species of
composition, that, judging by the books of the kind put forth for the last
twenty years, is so little susceptible of originality or improvement. A style
the most puerile, and a plan the most awkward and contemptible, seems to
pervade the whole of them, not even excepting those, which, were we to
judge of them by the celebrity of their authors, we might expect to find the
most able and entertaining. . . (I, 221).
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
true criticism as a liberal and humane art, the offspring of good sense
and refined taste; an art aiming to acquire a just discernment of the real
merits of authors, which preserves us from that blind and implicit
veneration which would confound their blemishes and beauties in our
esteem. In short it teaches us to admire and to blame with judgment, and
not to follow the crowd blindly.
It follows, then, Simms added, "that to merit the high and distinguished title
of critic," one must possess more than genius and reputation:
. . . something more is indispensably necessary to enable us to take
our stand, as the directors and advisors of others; that our critiques should
be entitled to credit, they should be just and
true,
and to be just and true, we ourselves must not regard the person writing,
but the thing written, we must endeavour as far as in us lays the power,
wholly to divest ourselves of every kind of prejudice. . . . With these
requisites for a critic, to which, of course, must always be added every
qualification which talent and industry afford, it is not easy to estimate the
real value which must in all enlightened communities attach to our reviews
of the productions of others; we shall by this means advance the literature
of our country; we shall become . . . guardians of the portals of Fame's
temple, not exactly forbidding unfledged genius to enter, but turning it back
with all reasonable hopes for future success. . . .
Later Simms pointed out, however, that "with some few exceptions. . . .
our critics of today" do not answer
the definition we have given above, they are not totally
unprejudiced. . . . judging from the evidences we have seen both in
the United States and Europe, we should even hazard the remark that many
books are reviewed before the reviewer has fully read the contents
of
them; that many times the book is merely used as the
text
for a commentary upon which it treats. . . .
The critic who "lashes without mercy" when "his strictures should assume
the form of friendly advice" particularly aroused Simms's contempt. Such
a critic, he said, "is rather more bent upon displaying his peculiar skill,
than improving the defects of the author. It is this shameful want of
discrimination which has cast an indelible stain upon some of the foreign
reviews of
every thing American. . . ." This severe criticism,
Simms summed up in conclusion, "so far from advancing the literature of
a country, rather retards it, and sometimes
stunts it in its
growth." Although Simms was later to write much with regard to the
functions of a critic, this essay penned at the age of twenty-three is one of
the best expressions of his ideas on the subject. These ideas he maintained
consistently throughout his career.
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:
There is an appearance of candor and fair dealing in these
'recollections' of Mr. Hunt; but the real design of the book is continually
betraying itself — and that too in a very aukward way. 'I cannot
without
regret,' says Mr. H. 'think of the picture I have drawn of the
infirmities of Lord Byron!' Alas! the gentleman's regret comes too
late for the credit of his sincerity — so far at least as relates to Lord
Byron; for we think, and our readers will probably think with us, that this
'picture' which Mr. Hunt 'regrets,' is a picture not so much of the
infirmities of Lord Byron, as of the worse than infirmities of Mr. Leigh
Hunt himself.
"The only portion of the work worth reading," Simms added, "is an
account of Shelley and Keats," both of whom he termed "men of
genius."
[33] But Simms did not dwell
long on Hunt's treatment of Shelley and Keats; he had raised the bludgeon
over Hunt's head for his
mistreatment of Byron, and he did
not
lower it until he had pummeled the "half bred, half educated cockney" for
seven long pages. In conclusion Simms asked, "Are not the friends of Lord
Byron . . . ashamed of themselves? Here is a man [Hunt] whom he
sheltered and perhaps fed, foremost of the vile crew who seek to hunt down
his memory because its lustre throws their own in the shade?" (I,
41-47).
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:
The author of the "Sketch Book," labored to conciliate; Mr. Cooper
is far more likely to convince. Mr. Irving's manner has been that of a
well-bred man in a drawing-room, who puts away for the time his out-door
prejudices, and makes the accustomed sacrifices to the prevailing etiquette;
Mr. Cooper's deportment will challenge a handsome comparison with that
which the poet Burns is described as observing and maintaining with such
admirable dignity and self-possession, when suddenly transferred from the
plough to the society of the nobility and gentry of the Scottish capital. We
believe, then, that these "Notions" are likely to achieve much in behalf of
the two countries; presenting, as they do, a
true picture of the
actual condition of these States in all their various relations. . . . (I,
174-177).
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:
One remarkable feature in the poetry of Mr. Willis, is that unstrained
and delicate colouring, which, while it fail[s] to draw forth our deeper
emotions and loftier sympathies, comes nevertheless home to the
understanding by that heart-simplicity which runs through it. We say
remarkable — for the history of modern poetry both in England and
America, is a laborious stretching after those morbid and diseased
excitements . . . — a longing after horrors — a disposition to
be
excruciating — and above all a Byronic determination, rather
laughable
on paper, to be uncontrol[l]ably miserable and sublime. Gothic horrors,
nervous affections, poisoned maids, haunted towers, robber knights, whose
lives,
'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:
This looks well; the South is not asleep, merely dozing, perhaps; we
hope her nap will shortly be concluded. We like to see Southern books,
though rough and uncourtly in outside, and wanting in those meretricious
aids and ornaments which [are] the prevailing characteristic of English and
Northern publications; and too frequently the only beauty they possess. A
new era is commencing in the South. We have been taunted by Englishmen
and Northernmen, and no men at all, so frequently, that we have at length
really come to taunt ourselves, and question our right to the high names of
our ancestors. We begin to think it time to do something for our own rights
and reputation, and as a first step to these objects, we have begun to think
and encourage those who do so. Let the good work go on, and we shall not
tremble for the result. Let us only think that future days will receive as an
inheritance from the present, a set of
American Classics, in
which the North, East, West, all will
have their representation but the
South; and the niche which she should occupy, may be, (if we determine,
not otherwise) like the monument of the decapitated Doge, all black, blank
and barren.
Later Simms admitted that he had "skimmed over Edgehill . . . not to
review it. We dreaded the effects of our southern prejudices in favor of a
southern publication; but the journals generally, have already spoken a
favorable doom and we are satisfied" (n.s., I, 33-34).
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
time has thrown an impenetrable mystery, fancy has stept in to the aid of
history, and tradition has dreamed until fact has lost its character and all
become poetry. Were we to believe the fanciful accounts of some of our
countrymen, from whom we should have expected different things, the
Indian character very nearly resembles our own . . . . It is the fashion, in
speaking of an Indian Chief to picture an Ulysses, strong at the bow and
matchless in the chase, with the wisdom of Mentor, full of grace and
elegance, and withal as figurative as a modern poet . . . .
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
Late Isaac Harby, Esq.,[40]
"arranged and published by Henry L. Pinckney and Abraham Moise, for
the benefit of his family," came under consideration in the first number of
the new series. Simms praised Harby particularly for his early efforts in
behalf of the literature of his home state:
The literary enterprise of this gentlem[a]n, at a very early period in
our community fully entitles him to the appellative we have thought proper
to bestow upon him. He was with us, the pioneer of literature. However
humble may have been his own performances, it is no mean reputation to
have prepared the way for others; to be acknowledged as one of those men,
who set for us the first example of literary pursuit and enterprise (n.s., I,
8).
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
Southern Review, 'a collection of political pamphlets,'" Simms blazed:
"Why, you unblushing varlet, how dare you style the Southern Review, or
any other review, 'a collection of political pamphlets' — you who,
under
cover of a literary title, made your miserable
American
Review
a vehicle for slanderous vituperation, and the virulent outpourings of a party
spirit, which you have no longer either the credit or ability to support" (I,
262-263). This outburst illustrates once again the boldness and the daring
of the self-assured young editor — the same fiery impetuosity which
the
calmer Simmons tried on several occasions to cool.
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
upon your own writings. I am perfectly satisfied you will not be heartily
willing to do this, but as you are pledged to its insertion (How unfortunate
— ED.) from the nature of your prospectus and the general plan of
your
work, I am determined that you shall partake of a little of that crabstick
which you are so much in the habit of applying to the shoulders of others.
It may be suggested that it would have been quite as well to have made use
of some vehicle other than your own, in which to give publicity to my
strictures upon you; I reply — It is my pleasure — I prefer
that you
should minister to your own punishment (what an excess of cruelty in the
art of torture. —ED.) through the medium of your own Gazette. I
ask
with Shylock, 'are you answered yet?' I shall expect to see this article in
your next, (in a great hurry. — ED.) and am not very apt to put up
with
a disappointment of any kind.
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:
There are few, if any, inducements to authorship in America. Neither
fame, nor profit result from the pursuit. Without a writer consents to
minister to the public taste, ruined by the English Press, in the manner of
Scott or Cooper, models, for the proper study of which, he is most
commonly unfitted, his bookseller will be terribly in errere
at
the close of the season. This fact has produced the multitudinous trash,
denominated Novels and Romances, with which the American Press, for the
last five years has been inundated.
Of even more concern than the degraded literary taste of the
American people was their continued dependence upon England for
guidance in literature and criticism. "We have it on the authority of an
American writer of some celebrity," Simms wrote, "that the Messieurs
Carey and Lea, (the most intelligent and respectable booksellers and
publishers we have . . .) have asserted that with the exception of one or two
. . . ,
no work of American origin will pay its expenses, unless
previously spoken of in some of the British Journals or Reviews."
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:
This morning being the twenty-eighth of July, and the 1st of August
near at hand, (the day on which we have proposed issuing the present
number of our Journal,) out sallied our printer and publisher to seek our
person, in much wrath and tribulation. All our communications had been
exhausted by our over large pages and over small type: and we had
accordingly set to work, in the hope of gleaning from the 'living spirit' a
portion of that celestial combustible, which was to inflame us with the glow
of inspiration, and authorship. Our once prolific fountain was, however,
quite at a stand; it lay sluggish and dormant as a 'mantled pool;' it no
longer bubbled and brightened over, but crept away among the pebbles and
gravel; too many draughts had completely exhausted and left it barren. . .
(n.s., I, 143-144).
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
of this highly productive young editor, he should remember Simms's own
dictum: "As long as the Editor is compelled, as we have frequently been,
to write one half of his book himself, one half of what he writes, must be
trash" (n.s., I, 80).
APPENDIX
SIMMS'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE
SOUTHERN LITERARY GAZETTE
I. Poetry
| 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) |
II. Prose
| 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. |
III. Other Contributions Probably by Simms[13]
A. Poetry
| 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. |
B. Prose
| 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.
