Part of a symposium discussing the neglect of William Gilmore Simms in college-level English courses. Charts the relative neglect, and recent return, of Walter Scott's work in successive editions of the Norton Anthology of English Literature. Proposes that the inclusion of an author in the teaching canon for college literature courses depends not only on literary or ideological criteria, but also on the author writing characteristic material in a classroom-friendly genre such as the short story, essay, or short poem.