About William Gilmore Simms
William Gilmore Simms (1806 - 1870) was an American poet, writer and historian. His novels were very successful in the nineteenth century and Edgar Allan Poe declared him the best novelist America had ever produced. In more recent years, his works have lost favor among readers, although he is still known among scholars as one of the greatest poets and writers of pre-war southern literature. He began writing poetry at the age of eight and at 19 he produced a monody on General Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. Two years later, in 1827, two of his first poetry books have been published 'Lyrical and Other Poems' and 'Early Lays'. In 1828 he became a journalist and publisher, as well as a shareholder of the local newspaper, the City Gazette, roles he held until 1832, when the publication failed. Simms then turned his attention entirely to writing and published Tile Vision of Cones, Cain, and Other Poems (1829) in rapid succession; The Tricolor, or Three Days of Blood in Paris (1830); and his most famous poem, Atalantis, a Tale of the Sea (1832). Atalantis soon established his fame as an author. His novel Martin Faber, the Story of a Criminal, an expanded version of the story entitled 'The Confessions of a Murderer', was published in 1833 allowing Simms to be known to the whole nation.Browse all poems and texts published on William Gilmore Simms
