Simms, William Gilmore
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
William Gilmore (1806-1870), an American novelist. He was a native of Charleston, South Carolina . His parents were of Scotch-Irish descent. His mother died when he was an infant. His father was a noted Seminole fighter. In youth Simms was a druggist's clerk. He afterwards studied law and was admitted to practice in 1827, but he soon abandoned his office for journalism and literature. He was for a time editor of the City Gazette, a Charleston paper opposed to the doctrine of nullification. During the Civil War, he edited a paper which upheld, naturally, the side of the South. He was a frequent contributor to magazines, writing, of course, from a Southern and pro-slavery point of view. The list of his published works contains two or three scores of titles, counting novels, poems, and dramas. He is best known by his Revolutionary tales, including The Partisan, Mellichampe, Katherine Walton, The Scout, Woodcraft, and Eutaw. Other border tales are Beauchampe, The Yemassee, etc. The latter is called by many his ablest work, but The Partisan and Woodcraft are more popular. Simonides,sl-mon'i-dez, a celebrated Greek poet of the seventh century B. C. Only a few fragments of his writings are extant. One of these is a satire on women, comparing them to various animals. An ancient legend tells that Simonides was once asked to write a poem to celebrate the exploits of Scopas, king of Thessaly. Simonides did so, weaving into the poem pious allusions to Castor and Pollux . Scopas' jealousy was stirred, as he wished all the laudation for himself. The poem was read at a banquet. When Simonides approached to receive his promised reward, Scopas gave him only a part of what he had promised, saying that Castor and Pollux would doubtless reward the poet for that part of his poem which sang their exploits. This jest caused laughter among the guest, to the discomfiture of the poet. Soon a message was brought to Simonides that two youths on horseback awaited him. He hastened outside, and as soon as he had left the banquet hall the roof fell in, destroying Scopas and his guests. No youths on horseback were in sight, but the poet believed with gratitude that Castor and Pollux themselves had avenged his wrong and saved him from destruction.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Aiton's noted in 1910 that Simms wrote "of course, from a Southern and pro-slavery point of view," as though that were an incidental matter of regional flavour; modern scholarship treats it as central, reading his defence of slavery and his Indian-war fiction as the key to the man rather than a footnote to him. The confident ranking of titles here "The Yemassee called by many his ablest work, The Partisan and Woodcraft more popular" has also shifted: The Yemassee and Woodcraft are the two that survive on university reading lists, while the long shelf of "two or three scores of titles" is largely unread. The chief scholarly event since 1910 was the publication of his collected letters by the University of South Carolina Press in the 1950s, which recovered him as a working man of letters and literary organiser of the Old South. He is no longer described, as he once was, as the Southern answer to Fenimore Cooper.
Written for this edition, 2026.