Tales of the South

by William Gilmore Simms

William Gilmore Simms - a nineteenth century American writer whose popularity once surpassed that of Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville received his greatest acclaim for such widely read novels as Guy Rivers, The Yemassee, and The Partisan. He also penned an assortment of short stories that, though less well known than his novels, are now regarded by an expanding circle of critics as his most impressive body of work. With Tales of the South, Mary Ann Wimsatt assembles a representative sampling of Simms's short fiction and restores these classic tales to their rightful place in America's literary canon. Deftly combining homespun realism with impressive flights of fantasy, these fourteen stories offer intimate views of nineteenth century work and domesticity while exploring the legends, superstitions, and folk experiences that circulated through all classes and races of antebellum society. Simms's sprightly, highly imaginative tales reflect his ties to British and American romanticism,