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Author: Simmons, James Wright

Biography:

SIMMONS, James Wright (1790-1858: Wegelin)

He was born in Charleston SC, younger brother of William Hayne Simmons (q.v.). The names of their parents have not been found. He studied at Harvard without taking a degree, travelled in Europe, and on his return became a journalist in New York, contributing to the Mirror and other periodicals. He published independent volumes of poetry and verse drama in Charleston and Philadelphia 1819-23 and in 1828-9 was coeditor of the Southern Literary Gazette. His final volume of verse was The Greek Girl (Boston 1852). (According to Appleton another volume, "Wood-Notes from the West," remained in ms but no trace of it has been discovered.) Between 1839 and at least until 1850 he was resident in Texas, possibly with a wife named Louisa and four children: he served as Comptroller and then as Treasurer of the Republic of Texas 1839-41, and contributed to newspapers and magazines, including the Galveston Banner. He died in Memphis TN, where he is buried. (Appleton; Knight; Handbook of Texas Online 22 Sept. 2020; Oscar Wegelin, Early American Plays [1968])

 

Other Names:

  • J. W. Simmons
 

Books written (8):

Charleston [SC]: printed for the author by A. E. Miller, 1819
Philadelphia: Moses Thomas, 1821
Philadelphia: Moses Thomas, 1821
Philadelphia: Moses Thomas, 1821
Philadelphia: Moses Thomas, 1822
Philadelphia: Moses Thomas, 1822
Philadelphia: H. C. Carey and I. Lea, 1822
Philadelphia: H. C. Carey and I. Lea, 1823