SIMMS, simz, William Gilmore, American novelist : b. Charleston, S. C., 17 April 1806; d. there, 11 June 1870. He received a secondary education at Charleston, was a clerk in a chem ical house, but turned first to the law, then to literature, published a volume of 'Lyrical and Other Poems' (1827), and in 1829 became edi tor and a part owner of the Charleston City Gazette, which failing in 1833 carried with it his fortune, and necessitated a busy pen. A few of his poems have clung to the anthologies, but he is best known for his works of fiction. Rarely he ventured, and always with failure, to past times and strange lands; but when he laid his scenes in the South and Southwest he was convincing and vigorous ; in the Georgia gold fields, in the southern battle-fields of the Revo lution, in forest and bayou he conducted bold adventures, described in a manner suggestive of Cooper, though failing in Cooper's constructive skill. 'The Yemassee,' a story of oolonial
South Carolina, is generally ranked as his best. Before the Civil War he had attained a very considerable reputation, being somewhat read even in Britain and Europe. After the war he found himself out of vogue. He was at one time editor of the Southern Quarterly Re view. Others of his volumes are 'Martin Faber) (1832) ;