It would not be fitting that this memorial edition of Timrod's Poems
should go forth to the world without proper recognition, on the part
of the TIMROD MEMORIAL ASSOCIATION, of the relation occupied and the
services rendered to the poet in his lifetime by the late Hon. George
S. Bryan, of Charleston. During the whole of Timrod's career Judge Bryan
was his devoted friend, ever ready to assist him materially, morally,
and in every other respect.
His faith in Timrod's genius never wavered, and but for his early
assistance, sympathy, and encouragement, much of the fruit of that
genius would have been lost or wasted. He helped him in adversity,
cheered him in his hours of anxiety and despondency, and from first to
last, throughout the literary and spiritual history of the poet, he
did more than any other friend to keep alive in his heart the steadfast
flame of faith in his poetic destiny; Judge Bryan's name must always
be inseparably connected with Henry Timrod's in the literary annals of
South Carolina.
January, 1899.