College football is back (and dove season starts next week); summer is thus over and it’s time to reflect on the successes for the William Gilmore Simms Society from this summer.
American Literature Association Meeting
The Society started off the summer by putting on two panels at the American Literature Association’s annual meeting, held in Chicago, IL on Thursday, 23 May.
The first panel focused on Simms’s presentation of the “plantationocene”, a currently en vogue scholarly term to describe the historical era of the plantation and its effects on human interactions, social organization, politics, economics, and the environment. Dylan Kobus, a graduate student in history at the University of South Carolina, gave a paper entitled “William Gilmore Simms and the Supernatural: Cultural, Magical, and Religious Aspects of the Edisto River Valley Plantations”, while Michael C. Weisenburg, director of the Irvin Department of Rare Books at USC Libraries, shared “’It was what we call plantation manners which drove peaceable forgiving New England to emancipation without phrase’: Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Gilmore Simms, and the competing ideologies of civilization in the plantationocene” with us.
The second panel was a more general exploration of Simms’s work. Dr. Kathleen Crosby of Elon University gave us “Harboring the Past, Materializing the Future: Traumatic Erasure and Material Reconstruction in
Simms’s The Cassique of Kiawah,” while Society Secretary-Treasurer W. Matthew J. Simmons presented on Simms and the barbecue with “’Of course, every one knows what is meant by a barbacue’: Simms and the Public Ritual of BBQ.”
These papers will appear in a future edition of The Simms Review.
Mr. Kobus was the recipient of the Ron Plunkett Fellowship in Simms Studies, which helped to defray the costs of his attending the conference. The Fellowship is named for longtime Society member and generous donor Ron Plunkett of Isle of Palms, SC. The Society wants to thank Mr. Plunkett for his support of emerging Simms scholars!
2024 Wigwam
The Wigwam, the Society’s annual gathering, was held in late July in Carrollton, GA, on the campus of the University of West Georgia. Dr. David Newton gave an excellent keynote on Simms’s theological principles as expressed in the writer’s holding rationalist and spiritualist views in tensions, which we see in his letters and speeches, especially.
All present members were fortunate enough to share an excellent meal at Samba Loca Brazilian Steakhouse right on the charming square in Carrollton.
(Photos are from the websites of Samba Loca and the City of Carrollton itself)
If you’ve never visited Carrollton, it’s a charming Southern town and well worth a visit! The Society very much enjoyed our time together in West Georgia.
Business Meeting
The annual business meeting was held at the Wigwam. Notes from the meeting follow:
In Attendance:
- John Miller
- Sam Lackey
- Colin Pearce
- Ron Plunkett
- David Newton
- W. Matthew J. Simmons
- Jeff Rogers
- Leila Rogers
- Sean Busick
- Kayla Busick
- Matthew Harrington
- Adam Tate
Meeting Minutes
Dr. Rogers called the meeting to order. Drs. Miller and Lackey reported on the American Literature Association and volunteered to organize panels for next year’s ALA meeting. Dr. Simmons noted that the University of South Carolina’s Institute for Southern Studies has agreed to become the Society’s new institutional home; ISS will cover shipping/postage and web-hosting costs for the Society moving forward. A proposal by Dr. Todd Hagstette (in abstentia) to move the Society business meeting to the American Literature Assocation meeting was put forth on his behalf by Dr. Simmons. The present members voted to defer a decision on that proposal to next year’s Wigwam, meaning that, should the business meeting be relocated to the American Literature Association meeting, it would be in 2026 at the earliest.
Dr. Simmons presented on several matters as secretary-treasurer.
- The Society currently has about $17k in the bank.
- Increasing expenses with printing costs means it is no longer economically feasible to print a paper newsletter. Thus, the newsletter will unfortunately be discontinued in favor of biannual updates on Society happenings on the Society website; members should expect to see Society news on the website in late summer and late winter.
- Dr. Simmons also requested all members provide him with an email address, so he can easily alert members when new updates are posted.
- Dr. Simmons noted that many of his recent attempts at mailing members have resulted in a glut of “return to sender” letters. He also noted that many annual members have not paid dues in some years. He asked for permission to begin the process of removing defunct members from the membership rolls.
- Simmons was instructed to try one last mailing to try to get members who are not paid up on dues to renew their membership in the Society; if that fails–or the letters are returned to sender–he was given permission to remove those names from the roster. He was also instructed to spend some time checking obituaries and seeing if there are any life members who have passed (an updated list of life members, including an honor roll of those who are deceased, is now live on the website).
Dr. Newton noted that the previous academic year had been the 30th anniversary of the Society. Realizing that we had forgotten this important anniversary, Dr. Rogers proposed that next year’s Wigwam be a celebration of three decades of the Society. Dr. Rogers proposed the 2025 Wigwam be held in Columbia, SC on the campus of USC; this proposal passed a voice vote. The meeting was adjourned.
Society News
- The Society will be putting on two panels at the 2025 American Literature Association meeting, to be held 21-24 May in Boston, Massachusetts. Calls for papers will follow later this year.
- The 2025 Wigwam will take place on the campus of the University of South Carolina next summer.
- Great news! The Simms Review is back! After an unexpectedly long hiatus, Review editor Todd Hagstette is happy to report that not one, but two double issues are in from the printers and ready to be mailed out. Expect to see them in your mailboxes in the next few weeks!
- Congratulations to John Miller on the publication of Honorable and Brilliant Labors, a new edited edition of Simms’s orations and public lectures. Hard copies can be purchased from USC Press, but USC also generously made the ebook “open access,” meaning it is a available as a free pdf download from the USC Press website.