William Gilmore Simms

William Gilmore Simms
William Gilmore Simms, circa 1860
Born	April 17, 1806 Charleston, South Carolina, United States
Died	June 11, 1870 (1870-06-12) (aged 64) Charleston, South Carolina, United States
Occupation	Poet, Novelist, Historian
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William Gilmore Simms (April 17, 1806 – June 11, 1870) was a poet, novelist and historian from the American South. His writings achieved great prominence during the 19th century, with Edgar Allan Poe pronouncing him the best novelist America had ever produced. He is still known among literary scholars as a major force in antebellum Southern literature. He is also remembered for his strong support of slavery and for his opposition to Uncle Tom's Cabin, in response to which he wrote reviews and a pro-slavery novel.

Simms was born on April 17, 1806, in Charleston, South Carolina, of Scots-Irish ancestors. His mother died during his infancy; his father failed in business and joined Coffee's Indian fighters; as a result, Simms was brought up by his grandmother, Mrs. Jacob Gates, who had lived through the American Revolutionary War and who told Simms stories about it. In his teen years, Simms worked as a clerk in a drugstore; he began to study law at the age of eighteen. He married Anna Malcolm Giles in 1826. After her death, he married Chevillette Eliza Roach (pronounced "Roche"). The bar of Charleston admitted him to practice in 1827; however, he soon abandoned this profession for literature.

Simms first wrote poetry at the age of eight. In his 19th year, he produced a monody on General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney (Charleston, 1825). Two years later, in 1827, he published Lyrical and Other Poems and Early Lays. In 1828 he became a journalist as well as editor and part owner of the City Gazette, a position he held until 1832 when the publication failed.

Simms devoted his attention entirely to writing and in rapid succession published The Vision of Cortes, Cain, and Other Poems (1829); The Tricolor, or Three Days of Blood in Paris (1830); and his strongest long poem, Atalantis, a Tale of the Sea (1832). Atalantis established his fame as an author. His novel Martin Faber, the Story of a Criminal, an expanded version of an earlier short story called "The Confessions of a Murderer", was published in 1833. This gained Simms a national audience.

Simms wrote a number of popular books between 1830 and 1860, sometimes focusing on the pre-colonial and colonial periods of Southern history. These included such titles as The Yemassee (1835); The Lily and the Totem, or, The Huguenots in Florida (1850); Vasconselos (1853); and The Cassique of Kiawah (1859). Many critics believe The Cassique of Kiawah to be Simms's finest novel. At first, Southern readers, especially those in his home town of Charleston, did not support Simms's work because he lacked an aristocratic background. Eventually, however, he was referred to as the Southern version of James Fenimore Cooper, and Charleston residents invited him into their prestigious St. Cecilia Society.