Among writers produced by the antebellum South, William Gilmore Simms of South Carolina perhaps ranks as a modest second to Edgar Allan Poe in enduring literary achievement, judged by the best of his novels and stories. But on the basis of his astounding productivity and versatility and his central role as catalyst and promoter of literature he can justly be considered a central figure in the intellectual and cultural history of the Old South.

No complete and definitive Simms bibliography has been constructed. However, he is known to have written or edited at least seventy-five volumes of novels, stories, poetry, history, biography, criticism, and other works. It has been estimated that the amount of his published writing in newspapers and periodicals, to many of which he contributed anonymously or pseudonymously and of several of which he was editor and chief contributor, equals or exceeds that contained within book...