The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1913-07-31
William Gilmore Simms.

=
duced. Your paper is read by near
ly every one in your county, while
very few read the Literary Digest.
In the May 31st number of the Liter
ary Digest there is an article on
'Slighting Southern Literature" and
William Gilmore Simms, who did
most of his writing at Woodlands, his
home in your county, is considered
to be the most eminent man of letters
produced by the South before the
civil war except Poe This fact
should be known to and impressed
upon the school children of your
county.
The protestant, Mrs. Townes Ran
dolph Leigh, is State historian of the
Alabama division of the United
Daughters of the Confederacy, and
she objects to the use of Prof. Bran
der Matthews's introduction to the
Study of American Literature" as a
text book in the high schools of the
South in this way: Professor Mat
thews's book contains twenty-eight
portraits of literary men, and of this
number only two Southerners are
represented, Edgar Allen Poe and
Joel Chandler Harris. Mr.. Matthews
says Benjamin Franklin and Jona-
than Edwards were the first Ameri-
cans known abroad. Why does not
| Matthews mention more fully Capt.
John Smith, of Virginia, who in 1924
published his General Historic, y
an amusing and picturesque account
of America, and whose story of the
Indian Princess, Pocahontas, is re-
lated in the United States Histories?
Washington Irving should be fol-
| lowed by John Esten Cooke, both
writer's of the same type of classic
humor. though their characters are
divided by geographical lines. James
F. Cooper is not greater than Simms,
William Cullen Bryant than Wilde,
Emerson than Beverly Tucker,
who wrote the wonderful novel, The
Partizan Leader Halleck and
Drake cannot compare with Hayne
and Timrod, nor Hawthorne with
James Lane Allen. Only Poe equals
Sidney Lanier as does Longfellow
Father Ryan,
A writer to the New York Times
takes up each of Mrs. Leigh's COM
parsons, and it is most gratifying to
note in his criticisms of these South
ern writer's what he has to say OF
Simms; we learn:
HE was born in 1906 in Charles
ton, then the only important literary
centre South of Virginia. For forty
years he produced books at the rate
of two volumes year, besides which
he wrote poetry and did a tremen-
dous amount of journalistic work.
HE was the centre of the South
ern literary group, and its Maecenas,
for he did much to help and encour-
age the younger writer's, including
Hayne and Timrod. His works COM
plement Cooper's, for he undertook
to do for the South, in its conquest
of the land from nature and the In
dian, what Cooper did for the same
struggle in the North. Even those
who do not hold him Cooper's equal
admit the strength of his work.
1.-The Yemassee,' story of early
colonial days, is considered his best,
though such stories as The Partizan,
The Scout katharine Walton and
'Eutaw,' dealing with the American
Revolution, are strong and powerful.
| tales
In the literary supplement of the
same paper, however, is found the
following expression of editorial
opinion:
Mrs. Leigh insists that Fennemore
Cooper is not greater than William
Gilmore Simms. We say frankly
that if we were compelled to choose
to-day between reading The Last of
the Mohicans' and 'Eutaw,' we would
choose 'Eutaw.' There is some
mighty good reading in Simms.'
W. G.. SMITH.
Orangeburg, S. c., July 2Sth, 1913.
LATRENs NEGRO DIES OF WOUND