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Marion is proverbially the great master of strategy?the wily fox of
the swamps?never to be caught, never to be followed, ?yet always at
hand, with unconjectured promptness, at the moment when he is least
feared and is least to be expected. South Carolina's ?Swamp Fox, ?
Francis Marion, is one of the most celebrated figures of the
American Revolution. Marion's cunning exploits in the Southern
theater of the Revolution earned him national renown and a place in
history as an American hero and master of modern guerilla warfare.
Although dozens of works have been written about Marion's life over
the years, this biography -- written by William Gilmore Simms,
South Carolina's greatest author -- remains the best. First
published in 1844, The Life of Francis Marion was Simms's most
commercially successful work of nonfiction. It offers a treatment
of Marion's life that is unparalleled in its scope and accuracy,
all in Simms's inimitable style.
The idea of "the great American novel" continues to thrive
almost as vigorously as in its nineteenth-century heyday, defying
150 years of attempts to dismiss it as amateurish or obsolete. In
this landmark book, the first in many years to take in the whole
sweep of national fiction, Lawrence""Buell""reanimates this
supposedly antiquated idea, demonstrating that its history is a key
to the dynamics of national literature and national identity
itself.
The dream of the G.A.N., as Henry James nicknamed it,
crystallized soon after the Civil War. In fresh, in-depth readings
of selected contenders from the 1850s""onward in conversation with
hundreds of other novels, Buell delineates four "scripts" for
G.A.N. candidates. One, illustrated by "The Scarlet Letter," is the
adaptation of the novel's story-line by later writers, often in
ways that are contrary to the original author's own design. Other
aspirants, including "The Great Gatsby" and "Invisible Man, "
engage the American Dream of remarkable transformation from humble
origins. A third script, seen in "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and "Beloved,"
is the family saga that grapples with racial and other social
divisions. Finally, mega-novels from "Moby-Dick" to "Gravity's
Rainbow" feature assemblages of characters who dramatize in
microcosm the promise and pitfalls of democracy.
The canvas of the great American novel is in constant motion,
reflecting revolutions in fictional fashion, the changing face of
authorship, and the inseparability of high culture from popular. As
Buell reveals, the elusive G.A.N. showcases the myth of the United
States as a nation perpetually under construction.
Long considered a leading literary figure of the Old South,
William Gilmore Simms (1806-1870) wrote letters, novels, short
fiction, drama, essays, and poetry in his prolific career. Born in
Charleston to an old South Carolina family of modest means and
raised by a grandmother with whom his father left him after his
mother's death, Simms felt a simultaneous sense of loyalty to and
alienation from his native region. He was a major intellectual
figure on the East Coast before the Civil War but saw his New York
publishers abandon him after secession, of which he was a vocal
supporter.
Simms's novels and poetry have been published in modern
editions, and he has been the subject of numerous biographies and
critical studies, but until now there has been no collection
covering the broad spectrum of his writings. The Simms Reader
presents a selection of his nonnovelistic work--letters, short
fiction, essays, historical writings, poetry, and epigrams--chosen
and introduced by the preeminent Simms scholar John Caldwell
Guilds.
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