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- Publication date: 1840s (x)
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- Smith, John, 1580-1631. (1)
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- A City Bachelor. (1)
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- (1)
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A Supplement to the Plays of William ShakspeareDrama | Geo. F. Cooledge & Brother | 1848 Well-known as a poet, cultural
critic, and novelist, William Gilmore Simms’s undertaking of an edited volume
of Shakespearean apocrypha seems, at first, odd and atypical. Yet, throughout his long career, Simms
displayed a real interest in the theatre, attempting, often unsuccessfully, to
write and stage plays. His
correspondence also shows a recurring concern with the opinions and evaluations
of the great Shakespearean actor Edwin Forrest, for whom Simms wrote several
dramas, none of which were ever staged.[1] Taking into account the author’s deep and
abiding interest ... |
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AreytosPoetry | John Russell | 1846 Published
in 1846 by John Russell in Charleston, SC, Areytos
was also titled Songs of the South, because
all the poems dealt with subject matter related to the southern United States. Many had been published previously in various
periodicals.[1]
Simms issued this collection on the heels of his Grouped Thoughts and Scattered Fancies. A Collection of Sonnets.[2] Thinking of himself primarily as a poet and
wanting to secure his place as one of America’s best, he followed the
publications of Grouped Thoughts
(1845) and Areytos (1846) with five
other volumes of poetry, all published ... |
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Atalantis; A Story of the Sea.Poetry | Carey and Hart | 1849
Though the first edition of Atalantis.
A Story of the Sea (1832) was well received by reviewers both North
and South, it had only one printing. The
limited print run of just 500 copies meant that relatively few readers could
enjoy the many “uncommonly strong and vigorous passages” that comprised William
Gilmore Simms’s fanciful tale.[1] Simms was early convinced that a larger
readership existed and that Atalantis offered
him an opportunity to increase his reputation in both the Northern states and
Europe. In 1837 he wrote to James
Lawson, one of his best friends ... |
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Beauchampe; or, The Kentucky Tragedy. A Tale of Passion.Novel (Romance) | Lea and Blanchard | 1842 Early in the
morning of 7 November 1825, in the town of Frankfort, KY, a young lawyer named
Jereboam O. Beauchamp crept to the house of the state attorney general, Solomon
P. Sharp, and stabbed him to death. The
murder was orchestrated to avenge the honor of Anna Cook[1],
Beauchamp’s wife, who as a single woman had been seduced, impregnated, and
abandoned by Sharp[2]. The event was a national sensation
immediately following its discovery and Beauchamp’s capture days later. Following Cook and Beauchamp’s failed joint
suicide attempt and the latter’s subsequent execution, ... |
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Border Beagles: A Tale of MississippiNovel (Romance) | Carey and Hart | 1840 In The Major Fiction of William Gilmore Simms,
Mary Ann Wimsatt argues that Border Beagles, the sequel to the
scandalous Richard Hurdis, shows Simms as continuing to explore the
contentious relationship between the older, civilized tidewater south and the
wild trans-mountain frontier.[1]
While thus continuing a theme begun with Guy Rivers and Richard
Hurdis, Border Beagles saw Simms decidedly scaling back
the violence found in those two books, especially the latter. Here, the
author’s presentation of the chaos and dangers of the frontier is tempered by
humor, with ... |
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Castle Dismal; or, The Bachelor's ChristmasNovella | Burgess, Stringer & Co. | 1844 A gothic tale of ghosts, infidelity,
murder, and love, Castle Dismal follows
the protagonist Ned Clifton, a “veteran bachelor” who fears the bonds of
marriage, in his holiday visit to the home of married friends. Set during the Christmas season in South Carolina,
Simms’s story illustrates the southern custom of bringing together family
around a table to feast; and while Clifton eventually marries Elizabeth
Singleton—freeing him from the “melancholy dependencies of bachelorism”—Simms
subverts naïve nineteenth-century notions of marriage and domesticity.[1] Marked ... |
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Charleston, and Her Satirists; a Scribblement.Poetry | 1848 Charleston and Her Satirists consists of a single poem that
William Gilmore Simms drafted in response to a previously published work on
Charleston. Simms is not directly
identified as the author, but is referred to as “A City Bachelor.” The work was printed and published in two
sections by James S. Burges in Charleston, SC during 1848. The first section probably came to press
sometime around November 24, as that is when Simms sent a copy to J.H.
Hammond.[1] In the accompanying letter, Simms asked for
Hammond’s opinion of the work, noting that he himself had some ... |
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Confession; or, The Blind Heart. A Domestic Story.Novel (Romance) | Lea and Blanchard | 1841 Building
out of his early experiences with writing in the psychological gothic mode in
such texts as Martin Faber (1833) and
Carl Werner (1838) and anticipating
his later work Castle Dismal (1844), William
Gilmore Simms published Confesssion; or, The Blind Heart in 1841. Coming at the front of what many consider to
be the author’s most productive period, this novel is the extended confession
of Edward Clifford who is orphaned at a young age and sent to be reared by his
aunt and uncle in Charleston. Rising
above his foster parents’ scorn, Clifford becomes a lawyer, a prominent
citizen, ... |
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Count Julian; or, The Last Days of the GothNovel (Romance) | William Taylor & Co. | 1845 - 1846 While generally considered to be
one of Simms’s weakest novels, Count
Julian; or, the Last Days of the Goth provides one of the most intriguing
textual histories of any of the author’s numerous works. Conceived as a sequel to Simms’s 1838 novel Pelayo, Count Julian continues Simms’s fictional treatment of Medieval
Spain, dramatizing the legendary betrayal of Julian, Count of Cueta, an act that
helped lead to the Muslim conquest of Iberia.
The work suffered from multiple delays in both composition and publication
and was not published until 1845 or 1846, more ... |
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Donna Florida. A Tale.Poetry | Burges and James | 1843 Donna Florida is a narrative poem dealing with Ponce de Leon's exploits in what would later become Spanish Florida. Before full publication in 1843, portions of the poem appeared in The Boston Monthly
in 1841 and in the February-May 1843 issues of the Magnolia.[1] Simms more than likely paid for the
publication of this work in book form himself, with the volume being issued in
1843 by Burges and James in Charleston, SC.[2] Simms
described the work as not “published, but presented for private distribution.”[3] Indeed, according to a 29 June 1843 letter
that Simms sent ... |
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Egeria: or, Voices of Thought and Counsel, for The Woods and WaysideMiscellany | E.H. Butler & Co. | 1853 Egeria: or, Voices of Thought and Counsel,
for The Woods and Wayside was published by E.H. Butler of Philadelphia in 1853
as a collection of Simms-authored laconics written over the course of many
years.[1] Simms began composing his proverbs as early
as April 1846 when he published selections of them in the Southern Patriot until April 1847 under the title, “Wayside
Laconics.” Soon afterward, Simms collected
these alongside many others and sought Rufus Griswold’s assistance in locating
a book publisher for the manuscript, which proved unsuccessful. Simms then ... |
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Father Abbot, or, The Home Tourist; a MedleyJournalism | 1849
Father Abbot collects together a series
of related political fictions Simms wrote for the Charleston Mercury from September to November 1849.[1] Here, the author revealed his significant wit
and complex thinking about social, political, and philosophical issues through
the perambulations of the titular Father Abbot about Charleston and its
environs. As Father Abbot travels
around the city with various companions, its economic and political future are
discussed; this conceit allowed Simms to use his satirical gifts to create a
humorous, yet biting, commentary on the socioeconomic ... |
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Grouped Thoughts and Scattered Fancies: A Collection of SonnetsPoetry | 1845 Grouped Thoughts and Scattered Fancies, a collection of sonnets written
by William Gilmore Simms, features poems published in the Southern Literary Messenger throughout 1844 and 1845. This volume was also printed by the Messenger’s printer, W. Macfarlane, in
1845.[1] Simms is not specifically named as the author on the title page; however, he is identified as the author
by the listing of two of his other notable works, Atalantis and Southern
Passages and Pictures. Simms personally selected the works for Grouped Thoughts and Scattered Fancies
“from his private repertoire ... |
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Helen Halsey, or The Swamp State of Conelachita: A Tale of the BordersNovella | Burgess, Stringer & Co. | 1845 While one of the lesser-known of
Simms’s border romances, the novella Helen
Halsey is nevertheless a strong work, indicative of the overall project the
author undertook in that series. The
first mention of Helen Halsey in the Letters was in June 1843. By September, Simms told James Lawson that the
work was “nearly ready.” Helen Halsey was “to follow up” Simms’s
ghost story Castle Dismal, a work he
announces in the same letter to be sending to “the Harpers.”[1]
Letters to Lawson from this time period
indicate that the author was interested in shopping ... |
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Katharine Walton; or, The Rebel of DorchesterNovel (Romance) | Redfield | 1854 Set in September of 1780, Katharine Walton is
the third installment of a trilogy that follows The Partisan and Mellichampein
covering the Revolution in South Carolina.[1] While The Partisan and Mellichampe are
set in the interior of the Santee and Wateree rivers, Katharine Walton takes
the reader to the city of Charleston in 1780-81 to trace the social world of
South Carolina under British occupation.[2] The city functions narratively as a
“unifying center,” according to John C. Guilds, to free Katharine
Walton of the “awkward shifts in action and setting ... |
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Katharine Walton; or, The Rebel of Dorchester. An Historical Romance of the Revolution in Carolina.Novel (Romance) | A. Hart | 1851 Set in September of 1780, Katharine Walton is
the third installment of a trilogy that follows The Partisan and Mellichampein
covering the Revolution in South Carolina.[1] While The Partisan and Mellichampe are
set in the interior of the Santee and Wateree rivers, Katharine Walton takes
the reader to the city of Charleston in 1780-81 to trace the social world of
South Carolina under British occupation.[2] The city functions narratively as a
“unifying center,” according to John C. Guilds, to free Katharine
Walton of the “awkward shifts in action and setting ... |
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Lays of the Palmetto: A Tribute to the South Carolina Regiment, in the War with Mexico.Poetry | John Russell | 1848 Lays of the Palmetto is a collection of poems that
William Gilmore Simms wrote in honor of the South Carolina regiment that
participated in the war with Mexico. Many
of the poems were originally published in the Charleston Courier in February and March of 1848.[1] Simms
is directly identified as the author of the work on the title page. In a March 23, 1848 letter to his friend and
New York agent, James Lawson, Simms indicated to him that he had “just finished,”
the work and was preparing it to go to press.[2] In late July 1848, Lays of the Palmetto was published by John ... |
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Matilda: or, The Spectre of the Castle. An Imaginative Story.Novella | F. Gleason | 1846 Carl Werner was published in December 1838 by George Adlard of New
York.[1] In the author’s advertisement, Simms classified
the collected stories as “moral imaginative” tales, a form of allegory
illuminating the “strifes between the rival moral principles of good and evil.”
Such stories, according to John C. Guilds,
may often exploit supernatural elements, although it is not necessary. Simms attributed the origin of the title
story to “an ancient monkish legend,” as he set “Carl Werner” in the deepest parts
of the German forest where the narrator and his friend ... |
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Michael Bonham; or, The Fall of Bexar. A Tale of TexasDrama | John R. Thompson | 1852 “I
have also a very Texan drama unpublished in my desk,” Simms wrote to state
legislator, Armistead Burt, in January 1845, “which will make a rumpus, be
sure, if ever it reaches light upon the stage.”[1] That drama, Michael Bonham, was originally published pseudonymously (by “A
Southron”) in the Southern Literary
Messenger from February to June 1852.
Richmond publisher, John R. Thompson, released it as a small pamphlet
after its serial run in July 1852.[2] The drama is based on James Butler Bonham, a
South Carolina native and lieutenant in the Texas Calvary, who died ... |
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Norman Maurice; or, The Man of the People. An American Drama in Five Acts.Drama | John R. Thompson | 1851 Throughout his long career,
Simms was regularly concerned with theatre, though drama would always be the
genre with which he had the least commercial and critical success. Norman
Maurice; or,The Man of the the People is perhaps Simms’s best dramatic
work, though its failings are typical of his theatrical frustrations. Norman
Maurice was a lofty experiment, mixing contemporary politics with common
language presented in the format of the Elizabethan tragedy. Written in strict blank verse, Norman Maurice is a play in which the
Constitutional and slavery questions that ... |
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Norman Maurice; or, The Man of the People. An American Drama.Drama | Walker and Richards | 1852 Throughout his long career,
Simms was regularly concerned with theatre, though drama would always be the
genre with which he had the least commercial and critical success. Norman
Maurice; or,The Man of the the People is perhaps Simms’s best dramatic
work, though its failings are typical of his theatrical frustrations. Norman
Maurice was a lofty experiment, mixing contemporary politics with common
language presented in the format of the Elizabethan tragedy. Written in strict blank verse, Norman Maurice is a play in which the
Constitutional and slavery questions that ... |
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Sabbath Lyrics: A Christmas Gift of LovePoetry | Press of Walker and James | 1849 Sabbath Lyrics is a collection of poems written
by William Gilmore Simms based on Christian scripture. The poems featured in this collection had
been published previously in Godey’s
throughout 1848 and 1849.[1] These individual poems were published as a
collection in 1849 by the Press of Walker and James in Charleston, SC. Simms intended for this work
to be, “a Christmas giftbook,” that people could give as a Christmas present to
their loved ones. His effort to find a
printer for the work in July of 1849, however, was unsuccessful.[2] In a letter to Nathaniel ... |
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Self-DevelopmentSpeech | The Thalian Society | 1847
William Gilmore Simms was invited to
give the oration, which would become Self-Development,
by the Literary Societies of Oglethorpe University in Milledgeville, GA in 1847. In consideration of his student audience,
Simms took as his theme the nature and progress of the individual, especially
in relation to his function within God’s plan.
The title quality, according to the author, is about recognizing one’s
God-given potentials and subsequently nurturing and expressing them in
action. Everybody has inborn strengths
and aptitudes; self-development is the art of fully ... |
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South-Carolina in the Revolutionary WarReviews/Essays | Walker & James, Publishers | 1853 Throughout his life, William
Gilmore Simms was deeply invested in researching and interpreting the history
of the American Revolution and was particularly concerned with promoting the
participation of his native South Carolina in that conflict. As evidenced by his biographies of Francis
Marion and Nathanael Greene, his series of epic romances of the Revolution
largely set in South Carolina, and his emphasis on the Revolution in his The History of South Carolina, Simms’s
understanding of South Carolina’s role in the conflict was one of patriotism
and heroic self-sacrifice. ... |
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The Cassique of Accabee. Tale of Ashley River. With Other Pieces by William Gilmore Simms.Poetry | John Russell | 1849 The
Cassique of Accabee, a volume of
poetry by William Gilmore Simms, features one long narrative poem, which shares
its title with the book. The volume also
contains a section of shorter poems.
These poems were all previously published in other forms before they
appeared in this collection,[1] published
by John Russell in 1849 in Charleston, South Carolina. As James Kibler notes, the volume was
completely printed by September 19, 1849, but copies were still being bound
around September 27, 1849.[2] Kibler observes further that subsequent copies
of the work, all of which were ... |