Katharine Walton, The Forayers, Eutaw,rn/osce/yn, and Woodcraft); and the “borderrnromanees,” set in the newer Sonthernrnstates (Guy Rivers, Richard Hurdis, BorderrnBeagles, Beauchampe, and others).rnhi these books Sinims created an allencompassing,rnBalzacian panorama,rnfrom the 16th to the 19th centur’, of thernhistor- and society of the region sonthrnand west of Virginia, a region that is, afterrnall, large and authentically American,rneen if seldom noticed, except negativeh’,rnin Boston. In the process he exploredrnas cxtcnsiel as an’one ever has the greatrndramas of colonial settlement, Rcvolntion,rnand the conquest of the frontier,rnand portraved fully every social class —rnthe aristocracy, lesser gentry, yeomen,rnpoor whites, frontiersmen, slaves, hidians.rnAt their best these books display drama,rnhiunor, robust realism, large andrncomplex historical themes, and a sophishcatedrntreatment of manners.rnB- a twist of fate even more curiousrnthan the popularit}- oiThe Yemassee therernis a lingering impression that Simms wasrna prudish, stated writer, full of woodenrnfigures of Southern ladies and gentlemen.rnThough he did pay some allegiancernto ideal aristocratic t}’pes, as modelsrnfor a society that was emerging fromrnthe lawlessness and crudity of the frontier,rnthe impression of artificialit}’ is farrnfrom just, hi fact, in his own time and later,rnSimms was usually subjected to thernopposite criticism. The New Englandersrnthought that he was too graphic and realisticrnin dealing with the hard facts of sex,rnviolence, and human drives. Later,rnwhen Victorian standards were beingrnabandoned for “realism,” he vas dismissedrnas a mere romanticist. He was,rnthus, first condemned for not being genteelrnenough, and then for being toornmuch so.rnIt is closer to the truth to say thatrnSimms, like Faulkner and the otherrnSouthern greats, dealt widi a full range ofrncharacters well, especially vividly andrnconincingl- with the middle order ofrnSouthern society, the nonaristocraticrnwhites, and that his most predominantrncharacteristic and greatest virtue as arnwriter is a robust and often sophisticatedrnrealism. Contrary to an oft-repeated judgmentrnalso, Simms’ women are as close tornflesh and blood as those of any contemporar-rnmale writer, as Anne M. Blytliernshows in discussing the range of femalerncharacters in her essay herein on ThernCassique of Kiawah. The same can bernsaid about the strong and shrewd widowrnEveleigh in Woodcraft.rnThe essa by BK’the on The Cassiqiiernof Kiawah and that on Woodcraft byrnJames B. Meriwether, the scholar whornhas been responsible for bringing a numberrnof Simms’ books back into print, arernthe most important perhaps of a numberrnof good essays in this collection, focusingrnas they do with considerable depth andrninsight on Simms’ two more enduringrnbooks. Woodcraft, as Meriwether shows,rnis a studv, at the same time profound andrnhumorous, of the difficult process ofrnrestoring social order in South Carolinarnafter the guerrilla civil warfare of the Revolution,rntold through the experiences ofrnCaptain Porgy, a Rabelaisian member ofrnthe lesser gentry. Any Southerner willrnrecognize Captain Porgy as an archetypalrncharacter of high authenticity. Woodcraftrndisplays Simms’ historical and socialrnl^erceptions at their most complex.rnAnother aspect of Simms’ work usefullyrnexplicated in this collection is his relationshiprnto the genre known as backwoodsrnhumor, hi this connection are thernessays by Linda E, McDaniel on PaddyrnMcCann and Mary Ann Wimsatt onrnSimms’ short fiction. Padd’ McCann,rnone of Simms’ late creations, was a SouthrnCarolina river boatman, candid and selfassertivernin the tradition of the frontier,rnwho by a series of fantastic adventures isrntransported to New York where he obserrnes the literary soeiet)- of the day andrnundergoes haunting experiences of thernsupernatural reality of evil. Among thernshort stories, “Sharp Snaffles: Hov- HernCot His Capital and His Wife” is surel’ arnneglected masterpiece of 19th-centuryrnAmerican writing. It is the ston- of a landlessrnNorth Carolina mountaineer’s strugglernto establish himself as a man and arnmember of his community. As the essayistsrnshow, these works contain seriouslyrnconceived and crafted elements of the exuberantrnfantasy and humor of the Americanrntall tale, interwoven with moral strugglernand social criticism and a maturernunderstanding of the human eondihon.rnNo one who is familiar with these worksrncan dismiss Simms as a mere shallow detenderrnof the aristocracy.rnAmong the biographical essa’s, thernmore noteworthy are Miriam J. Shillingsburgrnon Simms’ last lecture tour in thernNorth in 1856, an eye-opening accountrnof the literary politics that have been pre-rn’iously mentioned, and an analysis byrnDavid Moltke-Hansen of the developmentrnof Simms’ understanding of Americanrnhistory. Simms’ achievements in thernrealm of history are certainly anotherrnarea of unjust neglect.rnMuch of Simms’ ficdon was profoundlyrnhistorical. He also wrote history and biography,rnand he thought deeply and originallyrnabout the stormy relationshiprnbetween historical fact and literary art, asrnmay be seen by perusing his collected essaysrn(1845) Views and Reviews in AmericanrnLiterature: History and Fiction. Inrnthe collection under review new groundrnis broken in Nicholas C. Meriwether’s essa’rnon The Lily and the ‘Totem, a failedrnbut interesting attempt b- Simms torncombine history and fiction in a newrngenre. It is perhaps not too much to sayrnthat in his tlieor’ and practice Simms anticipatedrnsome of the most creative historicalrnwriters of our own time —JohnrnLukacs, Solzhenitsyn, Ceorge Carrett,rnShelby Foote —in a testing of the frontierrnbetween fact and art and a realization ofrnthe dead end of so-called objective histor)’.rnI have made some rather sweeping assertionsrnabout the rightful place ofrnWilliam Gilmorc Siinms in Americanrnletters which the 12 cssaists, or nian ofrnftieiii, will not necessarih’ endorse. Theyrnare a good deal more circumspect, modest,rnand scholarly in putting forth hisrnclaims than I have been, though mostrnwould agree that his standing ought to bernhigher than it is. You are free to disagreernwith me, but I will not take you seriouslyrnuntil you have read Woodcraft, ‘ThernCassique of Kiawah, Paddv McCann,rn”Sharp Snaffles,” and Views and Reviewsrnin American Literature. If ou have not,rnyou do not know Simms. You do not reallyrnknow 19tli-ceiitur- American literature.rnI’he writers of the essas would notrnnecessarily agree, either, with the descriptionrnof 19th-eentur}- literar}’ politicsrnwith which I introduced ni discussion.rnYet surely Simms’ neglect, if such it is, reflectsrnmore than an accidental o’erlookiiigrnof one writer. It reflects a particularrnpartisan heritage of ideological, not litcrirnn judgments which possibh ought tornbe exposed and reexamined.rnThe title of the introductory essay byrnthe editor of this collection, John C.rnGuilds, makes a statement and poses arnquestion: “Long Years of Neglect: Atonementrnat Last?” The statement is undoubtedlyrntrue. The question remains tornbe answered, though this volume marshalsrna powerful and pertinent case forrnreparations. crnJULY 2001/25rnrnrn