SIMMS, WILLIAM GILMORE, American author, was b. at Charleston, S. C., April 17, 1806, of Irish extraction. He made verses at the age of 7; and during the war of 1812. celebrated in rhyme the exploits of the American army and navy. Left in charge of his grandmother at Charleston; lie 'was placed with a druggist; but at 18 began the study of law; was admitted to the bar at 22; published Early Lays and Lyrical and Other Poems (1827), and became (1828) editor of The City Gazette, and published The Vision of Cores, Cain and Oilier Poems (1829), and The Tri-Color, a poetical glorification of the French revolution (1830). In 1832, his paper, opposing nullification, failed; and he lost its wife, father, and grandmother, and took refuge in New England, where at Hing ham, Mass., lie wrote his best poem, Atalantis, a Story of the Sea (1833); and the same year Martin Aber, the story of a criminal. From this time he poured out rather than wrote poems, novels. histories, and biographies in rapid' succession, which may best be classed in groups. Of poems, he published Southern Passages and Pictures (1839); Donna Anna (1843); Grouped Thoughts and Scattered Fancies (1 8451; Lays of the Palmetto—bal lads of southern heroism in the war with Mexico (1848); Poems, Descriptive. Dramatic, and Legendary (1854); 4reytos, or Songs and Ballads of the &nth (1860). Of dramas— Norman Matirin, or the' Man of the People; Michael Bonham, or the Fall of the Alamo; and a stage adaptation of Tinton of Athens. Of prose romances of the imagination— The Book of MI/ Lady (1833); Carl Werner (1838); Confession, or the Blind Heart (1842); Castle Dismal (184,5); Vie Wigwam and the Cabin, two series (1845. 1846); _Marie de
Berniere (1853). Of historical romanees—The Yemassee (1835); Pelayo (1838); Count Julien (1845);.7'he Damsel of Darien (1845); The Lily and the Totem, or the Huguenots in Florida (1845); The Maroon and Other Tales (1855); Vasconeelos (1857); Cassique of Ifiaicals (1860). Of revolutionary stories—The Partisan (1835); Hellichamp (1851); Katherine Walton (1851); The' Scout11841); The Kinsman, or the Black Riders of the Congaree (1841): "Woodcraft (1855); The Foragers (1655); Eutaw (1856); these five being stories of the war in the Carolinas. Of local tales—Guy Ra.e•s(1t-34); Rwha•d Rurdis (1838); Border Bea gles (1840); Beauchamps (1842): Helen Halsey (1845); The Golden Christmas (1852); Char kmunt (1856). His other works comprise a Risto•y of South Carolina; South Carolina in the Revolution; Lives ill General .,ifarion, Captain Jolla Smith, Chevalier Bayard, General Greene; Civil War in the South; American Loyalists of the Revolution; Views and Reviews of Ainerican Literature; The _Morals of Slavery, etc. Residing in South Carolina diming the war of secession, he sustained the southern cause in a weekly news paper, and had his house and library wrecked by federal soldiers. Of his various and voluminous worts, some are of high excellence. He died in 1870.