He looked a bit like this:
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He was born on April 17, 1806 in Charleston, South Carolina to William Gilmore Simms and Harriet Ann Augusta Simms. But then his mother died in childbirth in the winter of 1807, just when his father's mercantile business failed, so Simms was taken in by his grandmother while his father moved to Mississippi to begin anew as a planter. His father invited him to come help manage the cotton plantation when he turned 18, and though he did find the place intriguing, he ultimately chose to return to and remain in South Carolina, despite his father's exclamation: "Charleston! I know it only as a place of tombs!" This state loyalty of his manifested in his later writings.
In the years 1825 and 1826, he worked with friends on a weekly journal called Album. He also served as an editor to a number of Charleston periodicals while simultaneously publishing small poetry volumes. So, all in all, he was pretty established in the literary scene at quite an early age.
He also married one Anne Malcolm Giles in the year 1826. But in 1832 she died, and the lonely widower finally left Charleston for Hingham, Massachusetts where he published his fifth book of poetry, Atlantis. Soon after, when he had made his way to New York, he met William Cullen Bryant, who just loved one of Simms' longer poems in Atlantis. There, Simms established himself as the Southern writer among other New York writers, editors, and publishers. From there he output many famous works, including a drama called "Martin Faber" (1833), followed by three novels that grew quickly in popularity in the north, "Guy Rivers" (1834), "The Yemassee" (1835), and "The Partisan" (1835).
He returned around 1835 to Charleston only to find that the success of his southern stories in the north had not made its way down. He nonetheless settled and married one Chevillette Roach. He did continue to write, producing a few more novels, poems, pamphlets, and essays, all the while keeping contact with his new northern literary friends who helped promote his work there.
Unfortunately, he found that his fiction novels still weren't such great hits. He turned then, around the 1840s, to more political and historical things like biographies, for example. But he also advocated quite staunchly for acknowledgement of the Southern voice in American literature.
Incidentally, during this time he dabbled in politics for a bit, serving very briefly in the South Carolina state legislature. By the 50s, he was back into novel writing, and turned out some fabulously successful ones, including "Woodcraft" (1854), "The Forayers" (1855), "Eutaw" (1956), and "The Cassique of Kiawah" (1859). However, his political involvement did not end with his aforementioned term. In the 50s Simms penned a number of vehemently pro-slavery pieces. In the 1852 edition of the Southern Quarterly he described the institution of slavery as "an especially wisely devised institution of heaven." He also co-published a piece called The Pro-Slavery Argument, as Maintained by the Most Distinguished Writers of the Southern States.
His life was pretty much downhill from there. His plantations fell into debt, which the war only exacerbated. Several of his children passed away, and his home burned down, taking his personal library with it. Then his wife died, shortly after which his home was burned again, this time by Union troops, after just having it rebuilt. After that, he had no choice but to write just to get by, turning out works such as a series of Appalachian novels, "The Cub of the Panther" (1869) and "Voltmeier" (1869). He passed away on June 11, 1870 at his home in Charleston.
Sources:
Unfortunately, he found that his fiction novels still weren't such great hits. He turned then, around the 1840s, to more political and historical things like biographies, for example. But he also advocated quite staunchly for acknowledgement of the Southern voice in American literature.
Incidentally, during this time he dabbled in politics for a bit, serving very briefly in the South Carolina state legislature. By the 50s, he was back into novel writing, and turned out some fabulously successful ones, including "Woodcraft" (1854), "The Forayers" (1855), "Eutaw" (1956), and "The Cassique of Kiawah" (1859). However, his political involvement did not end with his aforementioned term. In the 50s Simms penned a number of vehemently pro-slavery pieces. In the 1852 edition of the Southern Quarterly he described the institution of slavery as "an especially wisely devised institution of heaven." He also co-published a piece called The Pro-Slavery Argument, as Maintained by the Most Distinguished Writers of the Southern States.
His life was pretty much downhill from there. His plantations fell into debt, which the war only exacerbated. Several of his children passed away, and his home burned down, taking his personal library with it. Then his wife died, shortly after which his home was burned again, this time by Union troops, after just having it rebuilt. After that, he had no choice but to write just to get by, turning out works such as a series of Appalachian novels, "The Cub of the Panther" (1869) and "Voltmeier" (1869). He passed away on June 11, 1870 at his home in Charleston.
Sources:
Literature Online Biography. " Simms, William Gilmore, 1806-1870." Chadwyck-Healey (A Bell & Howell Information and Learning Company).
http://gateway.proquest.com.resources.library.brandeis.edu/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&xri:pqil:res_ver=0.2&res_id=xri:lion&rft_id=xri:lion:ft:ref:BIO001949:0&rft.accountid=9703 (Accessed November 29, 2016).
http://gateway.proquest.com.resources.library.brandeis.edu/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&xri:pqil:res_ver=0.2&res_id=xri:lion&rft_id=xri:lion:ft:ref:BIO001949:0&rft.accountid=9703 (Accessed November 29, 2016).
Hubbell, Jay B. The South in American Literature: 1607-1900. Durham, North Carolina: Duke University Press, 1954.
Trent, William P. William Gilmore Simms. New York, New York: Haskell House of Publishers, 1968.
