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Overview
The author's most significant collection of short fiction, taking as its subject matter the Southwestern frontier with all of its humor, violence, injustice, and beauty
Synopsis
The Wigwam and the Cabin is a collection of border stories about the southwestern frontier. The collection is generally considered the best of Simms's short fiction. The Wigwam and the Cabin represents frontier humor, particularly the stories "Grayling; or 'Murder Will Out, '" "The Two Camps: A Legend of the Old North State," "The Lazy Crow; A Story of the Cornfield," and "Caloya: or, The Loves of the Driver." Not only do these stories draw upon the familiar subject matter of frontier humor, but they also contain stock frontier humor characters and a box narrative frame--a device that provides a cultured gentleman (outsider) who establishes the setting where an inner story is given in frontier vernacular; such a frame enables the humorist to enjoy the "uneducated rustic characters while maintaining their own cultural and social distance from such figures." Other notable stories in the collection highlight Simms's, at times, progressive rendering of Native American characters, including Oakatibbe, or the Choctaw Sampson, Jocassee. A Cherokee Legend, and The Arm-Chair of Tustenuggee. A Tradition of the Catawba.