Simms, william gilmore

South Caroliniana Library.

Simms, william gilmore: William Gilmore Simms (April 17, –

Lacking much formal education, Simms was a voracious reader and an acute observer. From his reading and his travel he absorbed history as well as local legends and acquired material for the volumes he would later writ. Poet, historian, novelist, editor. His mother died when Simms was an infant. His distraught father moved west, leaving his son to be reared by a grandmother who told him stories of Charleston during the Revolutionary War and the exploits of his ancestors.

From his reading and his travel he absorbed history as well as local legends and acquired material for the volumes he would later write. In he took up the study of law in Charleston. That same year he was admitted to the bar. In Simms became editor of the City Gazette, a Charleston newspaper through which he railed against nullification and John C.

In the early s Simms experienced a series of devastating personal setbacks. In both his father and his grandmother died.