William Gilmore Simms's Unfinished Civil War

William Gilmore Simms's Unfinished Civil War PDF Author: David Moltke-Hansen
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781611171303
Category : Confederate States of America
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
William Gilmore Simms's Unfinished Civil War measures the effects of the Civil War and its aftermath on one of the Old South's foremost intellectuals. Simms's mid-nineteenth-century poems, novels, and essays and the personal and societal trauma and destruction Simms experienced are all portrayed here. Before the war Simms was the most articulate advocate of Southern nationalism. During the war he became a prophetic critic of Confederate policy and poet of cultural ethnogenesis. The defeat of the Confederacy in 1865 shattered Simms's understanding of the working of history and called into question his sense of a moral providence. This collection of essays by historians and literary scholars first explores William Gilmore Simms's antebellum treatment of the role of warfare in America's past and the South's future. The contributors then consider the impact of the secession crisis, the Civil War, and the Confederate defeat on Simms's and other white and black Southerners' perceptions of their much-changed world. Next Simms's life, published writings, and thoughts during the war and its aftermath are examined. Finally Simms's late poetry and fictions, especially explicit and implicit commentaries on the postwar South, are analyzed. His last oration, The Sense of the Beautiful, published shortly before his death in 1870, is the subject of several essays. William Gilmore Simms's Unfinished Civil War reconstructs from both published writings and private letters the conscious and unconscious effects of the Civil War upon the writer and Southern patriot. Drawing on the fields of history, literature, and even archaeology, this interdisciplinary volume demonstrates that the anticipation, course, and consequences of the war were central in shaping Simms's writings from the 1840s to 1870.

William Gilmore Simms's Unfinished Civil War

William Gilmore Simms's Unfinished Civil War PDF Author: David Moltke-Hansen
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781611171303
Category : Confederate States of America
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
William Gilmore Simms's Unfinished Civil War measures the effects of the Civil War and its aftermath on one of the Old South's foremost intellectuals. Simms's mid-nineteenth-century poems, novels, and essays and the personal and societal trauma and destruction Simms experienced are all portrayed here. Before the war Simms was the most articulate advocate of Southern nationalism. During the war he became a prophetic critic of Confederate policy and poet of cultural ethnogenesis. The defeat of the Confederacy in 1865 shattered Simms's understanding of the working of history and called into question his sense of a moral providence. This collection of essays by historians and literary scholars first explores William Gilmore Simms's antebellum treatment of the role of warfare in America's past and the South's future. The contributors then consider the impact of the secession crisis, the Civil War, and the Confederate defeat on Simms's and other white and black Southerners' perceptions of their much-changed world. Next Simms's life, published writings, and thoughts during the war and its aftermath are examined. Finally Simms's late poetry and fictions, especially explicit and implicit commentaries on the postwar South, are analyzed. His last oration, The Sense of the Beautiful, published shortly before his death in 1870, is the subject of several essays. William Gilmore Simms's Unfinished Civil War reconstructs from both published writings and private letters the conscious and unconscious effects of the Civil War upon the writer and Southern patriot. Drawing on the fields of history, literature, and even archaeology, this interdisciplinary volume demonstrates that the anticipation, course, and consequences of the war were central in shaping Simms's writings from the 1840s to 1870.

Reading William Gilmore Simms

Reading William Gilmore Simms PDF Author: Todd Hagstette
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN: 1611177731
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 632

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Book Description
Engaging approaches to the vast output of South Carolina's premier man of letters William Gilmore Simms was the best known and certainly the most accomplished writer of the mid-nineteenth-century South. His literary ascent began early, with his first book being published when he was nineteen years old and his reputation as a literary genius secured before he turned thirty. Over a career that spanned nearly forty-five years, he established himself as the American South's premier man of letters—an accomplished poet, novelist, short fiction writer, essayist, historian, dramatist, cultural journalist, biographer, and editor. In Reading William Gilmore Simms, Todd Hagstette has created an anthology of critical introductions to Simms's major publications, including those recently brought back into print by the University of South Carolina Press, offering the first ever primer compendium of the author's vast output. Simms was a Renaissance man of American letters, lauded in his time by both popular audiences and literary icons alike. Yet the author's extensive output, which includes nearly eighty published volumes, can be a barrier to his study. To create a gateway to reading and studying Simms, Hagstette has assembled thirty-eight essays by twenty-four scholars to review fifty-five Simms works. Addressing all the author's major works, the essays provide introductory information and scholarly analysis of the most crucial features of Simms's literary achievement. Arranged alphabetically by title for easy access, the book also features a topical index for more targeted inquiry into Simms's canon. Detailing the great variety and astonishing consistency of Simms's thought throughout his long career as well as examining his posthumous reconsideration, Reading William Gilmore Simms bridges the author's genius and readers' growing curiosity. The only work of its kind, this book provides an essential passport to the far-flung worlds of Simms's fecund imagination.

Major Fiction of William Gilmore Simms

Major Fiction of William Gilmore Simms PDF Author: Mary Ann Wimsatt
Publisher: LSU Press
ISBN: 9780807125267
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
William Gilmore Simms (1806–1870) was the preeminent southern man of letters in the antebellum period, a prolific, talented writer in many genres and an eloquent intellectual spokesman of r his region. During his long career, he wrote plays, poetry, literary criticism, biography and history; but he is best remembered for his numerous novels and tales. Many Ann Wimsatt provides the first significant full-length evaluation of Simms’s achievement in his long fiction, selected poetry, essays, and short fiction. Wimsatt’s chief emphasis is on the thirty-odd novels that Simms published from the mid-1830s until after the Civil War. In bringing his impressive body of work to life, she makes use of biographical and historical information and also of twentieth-century literary theories of the romance, Simm’s principal genre. Through analyses of such seminal works as Guy Rivers, The Yemassee, The Cassique of Kiawah, and Woodcraft, Wimsatt illuminates Simm’s contributions to the romance tradition—contributions misunderstood by previous critics—and suggests how to view his novels within the light of recent literary criticism. She also demonstrates how Simms used the historical conditions of southern culture as well as events of his own life to flesh out literary patterns, and she analyzes his use of low-country, frontier and mountain settings. Although critics praised Simms early in his career as “the first American novelist of the day,” the panic of 1837 and the changes in the book market that it helped foster severely damaged his prospects for wealth and fame. The financial recession, Wimsatt finds, together with shifts in literary taste, contributed to the decline of Simms’s reputation. Simms attempted to adjust to the changing climate for fiction by incorporating two modes of nineteenth-century realism, the satiric portrayal of southern manners and southern backwoods humor, into the framework of his long romances; but his accomplishments in these areas have been undervalued or misunderstood by critics since is time. Wimsatt’s book is the first to survey Simms’s fiction and much of his other writing against the background of his life and literary career and the first to make extensive use of his immense correspondence. It is an important study of a neglected author who once served as the leafing symbol of literary activity in the South. It fills what has heretofore been a serious gap in southern literary studies.

The History of South Carolina

The History of South Carolina PDF Author: William Gilmore Simms
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : South Carolina
Languages : en
Pages : 392

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The Yemassee

The Yemassee PDF Author: William Gilmore Simms
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Indians of North America
Languages : en
Pages : 494

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Guy Rivers A Tale Of Georgia

Guy Rivers A Tale Of Georgia PDF Author: William Gilmore Simms
Publisher: Double 9 Books
ISBN: 9789362204615
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
"Guy Rivers" by William Gilmore Simms is a captivating example of Southern Gothic literature that delves into the intricacies of morality and justice in the antebellum South. Set against the backdrop of the American frontier, Simms weaves a tale of intrigue, betrayal, and redemption. The novel follows the eponymous protagonist, Guy Rivers, a complex character who grapples with his own moral compass as he navigates through a world rife with corruption and violence. As Rivers confronts the consequences of his actions and struggles with his inner demons, Simms offers readers a poignant exploration of the human condition. Through vivid descriptions and rich character development, Simms creates a hauntingly atmospheric narrative that transports readers to a bygone era of Southern society. Themes of guilt, redemption, and the search for meaning permeate the story, leaving a lasting impression on readers long after they have turned the final page. "Guy Rivers" stands as a testament to Simms' literary talent and remains a timeless classic in the canon of Southern literature, showcasing the author's keen insight into the complexities of human nature.

The Life of Francis Marion

The Life of Francis Marion PDF Author: William Gilmore Simms
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 376

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A City Laid Waste

A City Laid Waste PDF Author: William Gilmore Simms
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN: 1643361287
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
“A graphic account of the horrors, the brutality and sometimes wanton destruction of warfare, particularly of civil war.” —Charleston (SC) Post and Courier In the first reissue of these documents since 1865, A City Laid Waste captures in riveting detail the destruction of South Carolina’s capital city. William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870), a native South Carolinian and one of the nation’s foremost men of letters, was in Columbia and witnessed firsthand the city’s capture and destruction. A renowned novelist and poet, who was also an experienced journalist and historian, Simms deftly recorded the events of February 1865 in a series of eyewitness accounts published in the first ten issues of the Columbia Phoenix and reprinted here. His record of burned buildings constitutes the most authoritative information available on the extent of the damage. Simms historian David Aiken provides a historical and literary context for Simms’s reportage. In his introduction Aiken clarifies the significance of Simms’s articles and draws attention to factors most important for understanding the occupation’s impact on the city of Columbia. “A shrewd viewer of the war scene in Columbia, famed Southern writer William Gilmore Simms published stinging, courageous exposés of the doings of the Northern forces, even when threatened with arrest. The restoration of his candid firsthand accounts of the destruction wrought by Sherman’s forces against the South Carolina capitol and its inhabitants is a great service to all who study and appreciate Southern history and literature.” —James Everett Kibler, author of Our Fathers’ Fields

Confession

Confession PDF Author: William Gilmore Simms
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : American fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Tales of the South

Tales of the South PDF Author: William Gilmore Simms
Publisher: Univ of South Carolina Press
ISBN: 9781570030864
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
With Tales of the South, Mary Ann Wimsatt assembles a representative sampling of Simms's short fiction and restores these classic tales to their rightful place in America's literary canon.