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Among the personal papers of American novelist and poet William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870) is a pencilled list of cryptic jottings of initials, names, and dates ranging from July 1824 to February 1825.[1] Investigation reveals that this page is a chart in the author's own hand of his publications in the Charleston Courier for this period—when he was but eighteen years old. There are seventeen entries which turn out to be for poems published under the initials or pseudonyms, "W. G. S.," "S. G. W.," "S.," "W******,"
An eighteenth very significant entry, however, is the line: "Octavian myself 27 July." This refers to a contribution to the Courier for 27 July 1824, signed "Octavian," and entitled "Light Reading." The "myself" identifies the piece as by Simms and thus provides yet another Simms pseudonym, number 230, to be exact. Even more importantly, it makes known for the first time Simms's earliest prose work, thus pushing back by a year the date accepted as the beginning of his career as fiction writer.[5]
"Light Reading" is a satiric prose sketch told from the first-person point of view. Its youthful narrator, in a Byronic manner typical of the early Simms, is a loner, a proud lad who goes his own way, having no "interest in the affairs of mankind." Though men have always treated him with disdain, he has at least been successful with the ladies, who have been his major solace. After the sad events detailed in this sketch, he forswears them also and becomes the "Eremite," particularly scorning the "pride of wealth" of the "purse-proud" and "the regular time-plodding mechanics of existence, whose only object in life is the attainment of . . . wealth." The contempt for materialism shown here in this first known prose work is directly in line with a theme in his recently discovered earliest letters of 1826, where he similarly expresses his scorn for the greed which he witnesses on the frontier, thus foreshadowing his mature work's concern over the destructive force of materialism on character, individual wholeness, and the formation of high culture.[6] In valuing wealth over the things of the spirit, mankind loses the things of most worth, a truth expressed as a major theme of much of the mature poetry and fiction. Thus, in this sketch in the Courier of 1824, he is already voicing (two years
Much of the sketch, however, satirizes the speaker himself. His aloofness and highmindedness lead to both a literal and figurative "fall" involving considerable discomfort and embarrassment. First his fiancée deserts him for a "rich, clod-hopping burgher." Then his next intended inspires him to try to elope with her. His rope ladder at her third-story window breaks, and he falls into a Charleston sewer, much humbled. His "fair" but superficial mate then breaks off the match, realizing that he is not the man of the "many and superior qualities" of which he had at least temporarily convinced her. The narration reveals that the speaker's highmindedness might stem from vanity and arrogance. His artificial language characterizes him as foppish and superficial. While his values and actions seem honorable, the motives for them are definitely subject to question. In telling his story, the speaker shows more about himself than he knows; and his character becomes more important than the story he tells. What saves him from being an insufferable prig is his sense of humor and his ability finally to realize about himself at least something of what the reader already knows. It is interesting to note that "Light Reading" has some affinities with Simms's verse monologues of 1825-1835[7] in that both
[For the Courier]
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