University of Virginia Library

"William Gilmore Simms's Career as Editor," Georgia Historical Quarterly, XIX (1935), 47-54.

William Gilmore Simms (1892). J. V. Ridgely, William Gilmore Simms (1962), which centers upon Simms's fiction, makes only brief reference to his editorial work.

John C. Guilds, "Simms's First Magazine: The Album," Studies in Bibliography, VIII (1956), 169-183; and "William Gilmore Simms and the Cosmopolitan," Georgia Historical Quarterly, XLI (1957), 31-41.

Simmons (c. 1790-1858) had the following publications to his credit in 1828: Blue Beard (1821), Manfredi (1821), Julian (n.d.), and Valdemar, or The Castle of the Cliff (1822). His later writings include DeMontalt, or the Abbey of St. Clair, presented in the Charleston Theatre, February 2, 1843 (see Magnolia, n.s., II [March, 1843], 208) and The Greek Girl (1852). At one time Simmons was connected with the New York Mirror.

See Album, I (August 20, 1825), 61-62.

Note, however, that "The Tablet" was to include "Political subjects," which had been neglected by the Album. The South's great interest in politics, increasing in 1828 because of the impending nullification crisis, probably accounts for this change. The fact that the editors once referred to the Southern Literary Gazette as "our monthly salmagundi" suggests that they consciously modeled their magazine upon Irving's journal. See Southern Literary Gazette, I (November, 1828), 187; hereafter referred to by volume and page number in text.

The Southern Review had been founded by Stephen Elliott in February, 1828. Guy A. Cardwell has written that the Southern Literary Gazette "doubtless suffered . . . by comparison with the extravagantly admired Southern Review which was published at the same time" ("Charleston Periodicals, 1795-1860: A Study in Literary Influences, with a Descriptive Check List of Seventy-five Magazines" [Univ. of North Carolina dissertation, 1936], p. 307).

City Gazette and Commercial Daily Advertiser, June 27, 1828, intermittently through September 6, 1828. Despite the fact that in both prospectuses the proposed work was termed "The Tablet," the magazine was actually issued as the Southern Literary Gazette.

P. M. S. Neufville was the first printer of the Gazette, though the publishers seem to have been W. H. Barrett and S. & R. Babcock, booksellers. See the Courier, September 10, 1828. A. F. Cunningham, 36 Queen St., became printer and publisher at the commencement of the new series.

Courier, September 10, October 19, 1828; City Gazette, September 23, 1828.

Despite the editors' good intentions, however, the December number appeared so late that it was finally issued (apparently on the fourth or fifth day of January) as a combined December-January number. See Courier, January 5, 1829.

See also the City Gazette, February 14, 1829; and Courier, November 15, 1828; January 5 and February 2, 1829.

Unless, of course, as has been conjectured, the "Society of Young Gentlemen" is simply a pseudonym Simms assumed as the lone editor of the Album. See Guilds, "Simms's First Magazine," pp. 171-172.

The prospectus is printed on back of the title-page of the entire volume containing the new series (n.s., I, 2). The Critic, founded in November, 1828, by William Leggett, met with so little success that after six months of publication it was combined with the New York Mirror.

The London Literary Gazette; and Journal of Belles Lettres, Arts, Sciences, & c. was founded in 1817 by William Jerdan, who served as its editor until 1850. In 1828 the weekly issues contained sixteen large pages divided into three columns. The section entitled "Review of New Books" usually occupied the first eight of these sixteen pages, the last two of which were devoted to advertisements. The magazine survived until 1862. See Walter Graham, English Literary Periodicals (1930), pp. 315-316.

Courier, August 29, 1829.

The Pleiades and Southern Literary Gazette is not listed in The Union List of Serials, 3rd edition, ed. Edna Brown Titus (1965); nor was a tracer sent through the Library of Congress able to locate a copy.

In defending himself against the charge that Martin Faber had been modeled upon Miserrimus, a novel by F. M. Reynolds also published in 1833, Simms stated in 1837: ". . . the chief incidents of the former work were first published in the Southern Literary Gazette, a periodical put forth in Charleston, South Carolina, about seven years ago. It filled some eight or ten pages in the second volume of that journal. . . . From the paper entitled, "Confessions of a Murderer," the work was subsequently elaborated — partly in 1829, partly in 1832, and finally revised for publication in 1833, when it appeared in its present form" ("Advertisement to the Second Edition," Martin Faber, the Story of a Criminal; and Other Tales, 1837, I, xi-xii). Because of the confusing numbering of the volumes of the Southern Literary Gazette, it should be noted that in the discussion that follows, "second volume" or "second series" is synonymous with "new series, volume one."

See Frank L. Mott, A History of American Magazines, 1741-1850 (1930), p. 382; William Stanley Hoole, A Check-List and Finding-List of Charleston Periodicals, 1732-1864 (1936), pp. 31-32; Union List of Serials. . . , IV, 3374; V, 4019.

"The Stories of William Gilmore Simms," American Literature, XIV (1942), 26n.

It should be noted, too, that the prospectus ran in the Courier until November 7, 1829, the day on which the magazine was first and last issued. Simms and Burges would hardly have allowed the prospectus to continue to appear unchanged if the plans for their journal had been changed.

William Henry Timrod (1792-1837), minor Charleston poet, was the father of Henry H. Timrod (1828-1867). See Jay B. Hubbell, ed., The Last Years of Henry Timrod, 1864-1867 (1941), pp. 165-178.

This figure, of course, does not include anything Simms may have published in the single issue of the Pleiades and Southern Literary Gazette, or in the twelfth number of the new series — if such a number did appear. At least it is known that the "Confessions of a Murderer" is contained in one of these two numbers; thus Simms's contributions number at least 102. In addition, the Courier of October 29, 1829, announced "Chronicles of Ashley River — No. 6" for the elusive twelfth number. For a listing of Simms's known contributions, see Appendix, below.

For evidence for the various attributions, see Appendix.

Albert Keiser, The Indian in American Literature (1933), p. 296, says that Simms's estimate of the Indian is "probably the most balanced" in American literature. See Simms's essay, "Literature and Art Among the American Aborigines," reprinted in the John Harvard Library edition of Views and Reviews in American Literature, History and Fiction, First Series (1962), 128-147; first published as "Literature and Art Among the Indians" in the Southern and Western Monthly Magazine and Review, I (March, 1845), 153-164.

The fact that Poe left Charleston on December 11, 1828, and that the December Gazette (in reality a combined December-January number) apparently was not issued until January 4 or 5, 1829, means, however, that Poe would not easily have come upon a copy unless he was a subscriber to the magazine. See William Stanley Hoole, "Poe in Charleston, S. C.," American Literature, VI (March, 1934), 78-80; Courier, January 5, 1829. Since the Southern Literary Gazette was the only "literary" journal in Charleston at the time, the chances seem good that Poe was a subscriber — or at least a regular reader. There is no evidence, however, that he contributed to the Gazette.

See John C. Guilds, "Poe's 'MS. Found in a Bottle': A Possible Source," Notes and Queries, n.s., III (1956), 452. "A Picture of the Sea," which is unsigned in the Gazette, was later revised by Simms and published under his own name in the Southron, a magazine edited by his friend Alexander B. Meek. See "A Story of the Sea," Southron, I (June, 1839), 329-335.

For example, in "The Cypress Swamp" appears the following sentence: "A heavy plunge from a bank to which we were approaching gave us the first indication of an approximation to an alligator of the largest class; while the phosphorescent qualities of the disturbed water, as it bubbled up from the interruption, flashed vividly and strangely upon our eyes" (n.s., I, 212). This passage was condensed and altered by Simms to read in The Partisan: "Sometimes a phosphorescent gleam played over the stagnant pond, into which the terrapin plunged heavily at their approach . . ." (The Partisan, Redfield edition, 1854, p. 67). Also compare the following statement from "The Cypress Swamp" with Porgy's fondness for terrapin stew (The Partisan, pp. 371ff): "These terraqueous monsters [terrapins] make a most admirable condiment in the shape of a soup, of which, at different times, we have liberally partaken" (n.s., I, 212).

See J. Wesley Thomas, "The German Sources of William Gilmore Simms," Anglo-German and American-German Crosscurrents (1957), I, 130-131.

The second installment appeared in March; see I, 287-297, and 366-377. The Criminal become so from lost [loss] of honour, translated by L. Wapler from Schiller's Der Verbrecher aus verlorener Ehre, had been privately printed in Augsburg in 1825. See John P. Anderson, "Bibliography," in Henry W. Nevinson, Life of Friedrich Schiller (1889), p. xiii.

Simms was probably also indebted to William Godwin, whose Caleb Williams has the same purpose. See Floyd H. Deen, "The Genesis of Martin Faber in Caleb Williams," Modern Language Notes, LIX (May, 1944), 315-317. Another possible influence is Charles Brockden Brown, whom Simms probably read.

See, for instance, Simms's comments in the Southern and Western Monthly Magazine and Review (1845): on Fouque, I, 436-437; on Goethe and Schiller, I, 432-433, and II, 140.

See T. C. Duncan Eaves, "An Early American Admirer of Keats," PMLA, LXVII (1952), 895-898.

James Gates Percival (1795-1856) had published Clio I and II in 1822. According to the DAB Percival "remained the ranking American poet until the appearance of Bryant's Poems (1832) . . ." (XIV, 460-461). Simms may have read Hugh Swinton Legare's harsh review of Clio III in Southern Review, I (May, 1828), 442-457.

See also n.s., I (May 15, 1829), 24. In n.s., I (August 15, 1829), 159, Simms wrote of Willis: "Our only fear for Willis is that he may be spoiled like Percival, by the injudicious praise of those incapable of judging." The first number of Willis's American Monthly Magazine was issued in Boston in April, 1829. The last issue was that of July, 1831. See Mott, p. 577.

The author was James E. Heath, who was in 1834 to become the first editor of the Southern Literary Messenger.

For a recent study of Timothy Flint (1780-1840) and his pioneer western novels, see James K. Folsom, Timothy Flint (1965).

The title of the book under consideration is Sketches of the History, Manners and Customs of the North American Indians, with a plan for their melioration, by James Buchanan.

Actually Simms's trip to Mississippi may have come earlier. In December, 1842, Simms spoke of "traveling in Alabama twenty years ago" (see Guardian, Columbia, Tenn., III [February 15, 1843], 30-31) — a more specific statement than that which appears in the opening paragraph of the address he delivered at Tuscaloosa on December 13, 1842. There is some reason to believe that Simms is the author of "Sketches of Indian Character," which appears in the Southern Literary Journal for October, 1835. The opening sentence reads as follows: "It is now sixteen years since the writer left Charleston on an excursion of recreation in the then wilderness of the South-West" (I, 101). If Simms wrote this article (signed "A Traveller"), the date of his first visit to the Southwest becomes 1819, at which time Simms was only thirteen years old. Such a trip does not seem improbable, however; Simms's father, who had settled in Mississippi, had on several occasions tried to persuade young Gilmore to come live with him. Simms wanted to remain in Charleston, but a trip (accompanied by "a gentleman of fine sense and many accomplishments") to visit his father would have been natural. See also Hampton M. Jarrell, "Simms's Visits to the Southwest," American Literature, V (1933), 29-35; and William Stanley Hoole, "A Note on Simms's Visits to the Southwest," American Literature, VI (1934), 334-336.

Harby (1788-1828), journalist and playwright, had at various times been connected with the Quiver, a literary weekly, and with two Charleston newspapers — the Southern Patriot and the City Gazette.

Robert Walsh, editor of the American Review (1811-1812), was then editing (1827-1838) the American Quarterly Review. Mott (p. 272) has written of the American Review: "It was largely devoted to politics . . . and particularly to the difficulties with Napoleon." Of the later magazine Mott remarks: "Critics have united to damn the American Quarterly Review by one adjective: dull" (p. 273).

See Edd Winfield Parks, William Gilmore Simms As Literary Critic (Athens, Ga., 1961).

Republication of contributions, often with extensive revision, is indicated in parentheses. The following is a key to the symbols used:

• Areytos Areytos: or, Songs of the South (1846)
• 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)
• SP&P Southern Passages and Pictures (1839)
• SWMMR Southern and Western Monthly Magazine and Review, 1845
• VOC The Vision of Cortes, Cain, and other Poems (1829)

Simms used "E." as a pseudonym in the Album and in SWMMR.

This poem appears unsigned in SWMMR, II, 16. "Florio" also appears in the Album.

"Attica," Literary World, I (April 17, 1847), 252, is signed "Linus." "Attica" also appears in Magnolia, n.s., I (July, 1842), 38, and in The Cassique of Accabee.

Simms used "S." as a pseudonym in the Album and in the Magnolia. See also Morris, p. 28n.

This poem is dedicated to "Miss F____ S____," of St. Augustine, Florida. Because of the Simmonses' association with St. Augustine, one wonders if Simmons is not the author.

Simms used "Pierre Vidal" as a pseudonym in the Magnolia.

This poem is included in "Chronicles of Ashley River—No. 3."

Ms. of this poem is in the Charles C. Simms Collection in the University of South Carolina Library.

Simms had used "M." as a pseudonym in the Album.

See The Letters of William Gilmore Simms, ed. Mary C. Simms Oliphant, A. T. Odell, and T. C. Duncan Eaves, 5 vols. (1952-56), IV, 217-218.

In the first volume the criticism does not appear under the separate heading, "Critical Notices," as it usually does in the new series. The separate reviews—some of which in the first volume were probably by James Wright Simmons—are too numerous to list by name, but it is certain that Simms was the author of most of them.

This list is composed of those writings in SLG which because of matters of style and/or content I believe to have been written by Simms.

Attributed to Simms by S. Austin Allibone, A Critical Dictionary of English Literature and British and American Authors (1891), 3 vols., II, 2105.