Praised by critics on both sides of the Atlantic, The Wigwam and the Cabin focuses on the Southern frontier that Simms knew so well, a frontier whose vernacular, courage, humor, folklore, violence, injustice, and beauty are vividly brought to life through the strokes of his pen. "I have seen the life", Simms wrote", -- have lived it -- and much of my material...is the planter, the squatter, the Indian, the negro -- the bold and hardy pioneer, the vigorous yeomen -- these are the subjects".
Simms's portrayal of frontier life is the more realistic and graphic in all nineteenth-century American literature; and the Arkansas edition of The Wigwam and the Cabin, with Dr. Guilds's fine editing and informative introduction brings back into print an invaluable contribution to the development of the short story in America.
