In his lifetime, William Gilmore Simms “was the author of thirty-four works of fiction, nineteen volumes of poetry, three of drama, three anthologies, three volumes of history, two of geography, six of biography, and twelve of reviews, miscellanies and addresses, a total of eighty-two volumes.”[1]  The estimate of the output was impressive, if not quite complete.[2]  Regardless, Simms’s influence was unparalleled.  No mid-nineteenth-century writer and editor did more to frame white southern self-identity and nationalism, shape southern historical consciousness, or foster ...

          William Gilmore Simms's collection of scrapbooks represents one of the most significant, but least accessible, resources for the study of the writer. Housed as a part of the Charles Carroll Simms collection in the South Caroliniana Library at the University of South Carolina, there are nine volumes of scrapbooks, each comprised of works of numerous genres from throughout Simms's career.[1] While the majority of the included works are Simms's own, the scrapbooks also features writings by others, as well as works of uncertain authorship. Prior to digitizing these volumes, access to them ...