No creation of the city expresses the soul of Charleston better than its literature; nothing is more revealing or grander in scope or more fiery in nature. Both the variety of the authors and the quality of their writing are exceptional.
From the colonial period through the antebellum and Victorian into the modern and contemporary, Charleston has been the home of Promethean-spirited individuals who have shared their creative fire to advance, enlighten and defend the lives of others.
The first significant period of Charleston literature occurred during the two decades before the War Between the States. The second was in the 1920s and early 1930s, the Charleston Literary Renaissance, the inspiration for a more general flowering. More internationally acclaimed authors are coming out of Charleston today.
Charleston authors have portrayed and preserved the life of the city and the cultures that have created them. They have defined the major Southern literary themes, but in a uniquely Charleston way. Artistically and historically, Charleston literature is the greatness of the city, and the cradle in which Southern literature found its voice. Charleston literature expresses the dreams and ideals of people who founded nations.
First printed in Charleston in 1852, this Lowcountry plantation romance records the antebellum Christmas traditions of Charleston during the social season. It portrays the pride of a Huguenot family, the prejudice of an English family, and the plight of star-crossed lovers.
By 1851, the English Bulmers and their rivals, the Huguenot Bonneaus, had been feuding for a hundred years, when their children dare to defy their families by falling in love. The sometimes frantic, often humorous schemes of two young bachelors striving to obtain the blessings of their elders as well as promises of marriage from their chosen ladies are chronicled by South Carolina's most famous author, the father of Southern literature.
The poet, historian, and dramatist William Gilmore Simms (1806 - 1870) was one of the most popular nineteenth-century novelists. A monument stands today at the Battery as witness to Charleston's appreciation for the achievements of this native son.
Introduction to The Golden Christmas
The Cassique of Kiawah is a lost masterpiece. Very few copies of this, the rarest of William Gilmore Simms's 34 works of fiction, have survived. Simms scholars, who have located copies of The Cassique to read, often acclaim it his best. A result of the mature Simms's life-long devotion to literature, The Cassique showcases his considerable talents as a novelist. It also demonstrates a number of the major ingredients found in American popular fiction. The plot, setting, characterization, and perspective all combine to make The Cassique of Kiawah one of the great works of American literature. The publication of this edition, the only reissue in over a hundred years, is a first step in reclaiming one of our national treasures.
The Cassique of Kiawah is the second of Simms's two Colonial Romances. It was preceded by The Yemassee (1835) which was published by Simms in his youth, widely read in his lifetime, and proclaimed his best novel for years, largely because it was the only one in print. Unlike The Yemassee, The Cassique was never widely distributed. Its original publication was less than two years before the War Between the States broke out in Charleston Harbor, and the entire nation turned its attention elsewhere.
Introduction to The Cassique of Kiawah
David Aiken
B.A., M.Div., M.A., Ph.D.
College of Charleston
The Citadel
English Department
66 George Street
College of Charleston
Charleston, SC 29424
email: aikend@cofc.edu
website address: http://www.cofc.edu/~aikend/
Resumé
Article on Faulker's The Sound and the Fury
Article on Flannery O'Connor's "The
Enduring Chill"
Article on Mary Hood
David Aiken is a literary historian who teaches English at the College of Charleston and The Citadel, where he conducts undergraduate courses.
He has earned four degrees from four universities and has edited and written over fifty books and articles on Southern authors.
He is a founding member of the William Gilmore Simms Society and of The Simms Review. He has served as the president of the Simms Society and of The Poetry Society of South Carolina. His book Fire in the Cradle: Charleston's Literary Heritage is the only literary history of Charleston, South Carolina.
