New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1892-02-28
A SOUTHERN AUTHOR.
WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS.

WILLIAM GILMORE SIMMS. BY William p. Trent.
I6mo PIP 351. IIoughton, MiGlin & Co.
William Gilmore Simms has found biographer
Of HI. own selection, yet whose evenly balanced
Judgment and candid recognition OF his vehement
subjects errors and defects would have hardly
pleased the man whose career he has so carefully
and conscentiously related. The name OF Simms
has almost passed out of the public memory IN the
comparatively few years that have elapsed since his
death: vet there was considerable period before
the war when it was familiar as a household word
both North and South. Undoubtedly the most
prolific writer the South has produced, his talents
were devoted 10 two classes Of literature, in neither
of which did he achieve excellence He wrote
great quantity of third-rate poetry. and great
number Of at the best, second-rate novels. In one
point alone he did really good work, and that was
in reproducing with graphic power and realistic
fidelity the border life OF his time. which he had
seen and studied TO advantage. Even this how
ever was not done with adequate discrimination.
Border life was rough and brutal, and descended
often into crimes Of violence and personal comb1ts
too often ending in atrocious murders. Now
Simms unhapply did not appear able 10 distinguish
between what is literally true and what is aN
able for the purposes of fiction lie rcsembled the
French Reast in this. lie was too prone TO
throw into high relief the horrors and barbritics
over the details Of murders and mutilations and
other crimes in way 10 shock and scken the
modern reader
But he could write dashing colonial and border
romances, and though the taste of the present day
NAV see little superiority in them to the ordinary
dime novel" Smms is entitled to the credit Of
careful research, insstencc upon the accuracy OF
his historical references and sincere endeavors TO
reproduce the scenery, local atmosphere, and general
accessories of the people and events he described.
His stories were full Of action and written without
regard 10 probability. Every one knows the kind
of fiction now in which all the heroes can do
everything superbly, are dead shots and fearless
riders and unequaled scouts, and more than match
for any number of foes in which all the villains
are monsters of wicLedness and cruelty, STEPPED TO
the lips in crime in which all the heroines are love
~ and pure and-generally- unfortunate in every
conceivable circumstance. But Simms made his lio-
tons sufficiently lively and interesting to satisfy the
by no means eygent taste Of the time and while
nothing he wrote could compare with the average
work Of Cooper, his biographer thinks that he may
claim place after Brockden Brown. lie reached
his highest level early and though Professor Trent
holds that his mind did not crystalline" even late
in fe there is nothing 10 show that it grew at all
during the second half of his literary career.
Professor Trent argues that il was not possible
for the South in the slavery 10 produce literary
excellence. and certainly the fact that Simns
the highest literary type that section could boast
of between / $50 and 1860 strongly supports this
view Moreover, but for the Northern men of let
tiers and Northern publishers it seems questionable
whether even this inferior talent would have been
accorded expression. For Simms had made up his
mind to make a reputation and a living Mt Charles
ton. and Charleston would have none of him. The
educated Southerner Of that time took interest
in American literature, scorning it as provincial
and ignoring il. He was not great reader. but
what he did read was English literature of the
eighteenth century, or the classics. He was adj
dicted 10 Latin quotations and to Addison, Steele,
Pope, Swift, and Johnson. A few Northern
writer's such as Irving and Cooper were recognized
by him rather frigidly, but he did not acknowledge
even the existence Of Southern literature, and in
this il must be admitted that he was not far
wrong The history of Simms's Charleston en-
pcriencc, spread over many years, is dismal
record of failure and disappointment. Attempt
after attempt was made to establish literary
periodicals. All either fell fat at once or sank