University of Virginia Library

I

In 1952, the editors of The Letters of William Gilmore Simms made known the existence of The Album (1825) for the first time.[1] Heretofore, this earliest Charleston literary magazine, unique in the South to its day as a journal devoted exclusively to literature and significant because it was W. G. Simms's first editorial venture, had not been known beyond a prospectus in the Charleston newspapers. W. P. Trent, Simms's biographer, had not mentioned it;[2] and various scholars had concluded that The Album was never published. "Projected but did not appear" and "failed to materialize" were the verdicts.[3] Still after three decades, the copy used by the editors of the Letters in 1952 is the only one to surface.[4]

John Guilds, in the first study of The Album, explored the magazine's importance, which he rightly found to be considerable.[5] His article, while still largely accurate in its assessments, now requires a few corrections, some refinings of several points, and the addition of significant new information, some of which is of major importance to Simms biography. All are made possible by the recent discovery of a second volume of The Album,[6] the existence of which no one had guessed.

The Album, Volume I, was published from 2 July 1825 to 24 December 1825, for a total of 26 numbers in 210 pages.[7] Volume II began with a first issue of 7 January 1826 and ran at least through the 25th issue of 24 June 1826, for 200 pages. (Volume II may also have continued with a 26th number, but issue 25 is the last we have to date.) The format[8] and editorial policy of Volume II remained essentially unchanged, as an octavo weekly costing 25 cents per week, and published by Gray and Ellis at No. 9 Broad-Street. Its editors continued to encourage local Southern contributors of original material and repeated that they would not serve up European reprints and translations, or borrow heavily from the files of other periodicals for copy. Their three great emphases remained demanding high literary quality, publishing original productions, and "cultivating Native Talent." For the last-named purpose, they began offering premiums in March 1826 for the best original essay and story, to be judged by a "Committee of Literary Gentlemen" II (11 March, 1826), p. 76.

One significant alteration in format, however, was the addition of the subtitle, "Or, Charleston Literary Gazette." This change pointed even more clearly to the editor's intention of making The Album the South's first exclusively literary magazine. More importantly, it suggests the possibility of continuity between The Album and Simms's next editorial endeavor, The Southern Literary Gazette, published in Charleston from 1828-1829.[9] It is not unlikely that there was some 1827 bridge between The Album, Or, Charleston Literary Gazette of 1826 and The Southern Literary Gazette of 1828, particularly when one considers Simms's statement that he "commenced editing" at 18 and "continued to do so until I was 23," in other words from 1824 to 1829 (16 October 1841, Letters, I, 285). Although no issue of a Volume III is known, the strong possibility of its existence should not be discounted. For after all, it has taken over a century for Volume I to surface and a century and a half for Volume II.

With the discovery of Volume II and thus a knowledge of another six months of life for the periodical, John Guilds's statement about The Album's quick demise requires adjustment: "in view of the fact

that the Album was admittedly a literary miscellany in a political-minded section, was edited by inexperienced hands, and lacked even the attraction of European reprints or translations, it seems surprising that it survived for as long as six months" (SB, 8 (1956), 175). The record now stands that the journal lasted at least a year, and perhaps continued more or less unbroken in a new form, The Southern Literary Gazette, until 1829. Charleston, once called "that deathbed of Southern periodicals," may thus have claimed one less casualty. Judging from Simms's own recollection of the great number of rival literary societies of young men in the city in the 1820's, who pooled their books and encouraged the performance of drama and the writing and discussion of essays, poetry, and fiction, one must conclude that there was a very great interest in and vigorous support of literature. In fact, Simms recalled that there were during the time of The Album's publication "fully twenty or thirty of these juvenile societies, counting each from twenty to forty members."[10] It was, he concluded, "a period of great literary activity, among all classes." The extent of Charleston's support of literary activities in the 1820's may thus require further examination. The Album did not fold so rapidly as has been thought. The section was indeed "political-minded"; but there was apparently much more interest in the arts than the popular twentieth-century view has credited.

The mistaken assumption that there were few interested in literature in the Charleston of this time may have also led to the conclusion that Simms was very possibly the sole editor of The Album and indeed wrote most of its copy.[11] Volume II proves conclusively that he was not, and did not. The editors of The Album called themselves a "Society of Young Gentlemen," and they indeed were. One should not "hazard a guess that young Gilmore was the only editor, posing as the 'Society of Young Gentlemen' in an effort to hide his identity and to win supporters for what seemed a community project" (ibid., pp. 171-172), for it certainly was just that, an undertaking in which several members of a segment of the literary community each had a hand. As the evidence of Volume II reveals, Simms made a journey to the Southwest from January through April 1826 and was thus not in residence while most of Volume II issued from Charleston week after week. Although he continued to send poems and letters back for publication through the post,

this "Society of Young Gentlemen" kept up its work and in the manner it had before his leaving, and, as already shown, with emphases and editorial policies unchanged. In other words, although he was likely a most valuable staff member, perhaps even the most energetic one, he was not indispensable. The "Society" continued to rely heavily on his pen for original contributions, to an amazingly great extent considering he was some thousand miles distant; but at least one other prolific contributor, most probably a member of the editorial staff, can now be identified.

That contributor was William Allen, a young Charlestonian whom Simms recalled in 1870 as "another of those promising lads of literature in our city . . . a ready and indefatigable writer in prose and verse, . . . the writer of more than one novel, or romance, of the old English narrative school, . . . a thin, nervous person, of spasmodic eagerness and impulse" who "dabbled in chemistry as well as literature" and who died young, "having swallowed a solution of phosphorus in mistake for water" (Reminiscences, pp. 921-922). Simms further recalled that among Allen's pennames were "Juan," "J. A. O.," "Rinaldo," and "St. Eustace." (Simms probably erred slightly here; the last two should read "Roderick" and "St. Pierre.") To Volume I, Allen contributed at least twelve poems and five prose works under these pseudonyms and his initials "W. A."[12] For Volume II, he wrote at least four poems for the eight extant issues, using pseudonyms "Juan," "I. A. O." and "St. Pierre"; and there are prose works also likely by him.

In addition to Allen, the publishers Gray and Ellis had some hand in important matters;[13] and James Wright Simmons (1790-1858), coeditor with Simms of The Southern Literary Gazette of 1828, may have been a member of the editorial circle. He was a very strong influence on and close friend of Simms during the time, and had worked on the staff of the New York Mirror, which periodical Guilds has proved to be a model for The Album.[14] Hence, though Simms was an active member of the editorial staff, The Album in no way could be considered a one-man project. Later, as editor of The Magnolia and The Southern and Western Monthly Magazine, he would indeed be sole editor and primary contributor; but with The Album he was an important part of a communal effort.