Text: Caroline Ticknor, “Ingram — Discourager of Poe Biographies,” Bookman (New York, NY), September 1916, pp. 8-14

[page 8, continued:]

EARLY in February there passed away in Brighton, England, a unique literary figure, John H. Ingram, whose life had been devoted to the study of Edgar Allan Poe. Since boyhood the Englishman had been a student and lover of Poe's work, as well as an enthusiastic collector of his letters, manuscripts and first editions, and it is understood that his decease has put upon the English [column 2:] market one of the very best collections of Poeana in existence.

For over thirty years Ingram had been at work upon his final and exhaustive life of Poe, whose genius, he claimed, had failed to win proper appreciation in America. This work was practically complete at the time that the writer, once prominent in the world of letters, and of late quite forgotten, [page 9:] slipped quietly away, evoking scarce a comment from the press, either here, or in England. Yet Ingram had written and translated a score of books, and had been a well-known contributor to the leading reviews of England, France and America. A literary expert in many lines, his latest publication was a little volume on Marlowe and His Poetry, issued in 1914. He had in past years written biographies of Chatterton, Mrs. Browning, Oliver Madox Brown and others, besides producing a large amount of editorial work, but his chief interest had always focused upon Edgar Poe, and it was in connection with his researches in this especial field that he desired to be remembered; he wished to be the one authentic Poe biographer in all the world, and it remains to be proved whether he realised this ambition in the work which is now awaiting publication in England (if it has not already gone to press).

As far back as 1874, he first edited the works of Poe, supplying a short Memoir, which in 1880 he extended into his Life of Poe, which has remained a standard work, pronounced by Professor Harrison as the best and most reliable biography of Poe.

Ingram continued to edit various editions of Poe's poems, essays and tales, including those in the Tauchnitz series, and in one volume, devoted to ‘The Raven,” he collected the interesting parodies upon that poem which had sprung up in all parts of the world. His Life of Poe passed through many editions here and in England, was translated into several European languages, and was extended by him a decade after its appearance. ‘Throughout his life, Ingram was busied with hunting up fresh information regarding his pet subject and in watching with jealous eye the publication of anything concerning Poe. Like all men with a hobby he became, as years went on, more and more prompt to resent any encroachment upon the field in which he felt he reigned supreme, by means of extended study, research and [column 2:] the ownership of numberless Poe documents.

To write an article or book on Poe was generally synonymous with quarrelling with Ingram, who pounced upon the luckless intruder the moment his production came from the press, and either pointed out his errors and mis- statements, or else came down upon him for the use of material which Ingram had copyrighted.

Yet those that bearded the lion in his den were likely to find him far less intimidating than they had expected; a little friendly converse about the hero of their mutual literary works soon brought about a truce, and Ingram, who had vowed vengeance on the other Poe enthusiast, generally ended by showing him his treasures and offering to aid him in further researches.

Ingram's first transatlantic quarrel was with William F. Gill, whose work on Poe was issued almost simultaneously with his first memoir, and the two men attacked each other furiously in the English and American papers, each one accusing the other of appropriating facts and material which he had put forth in previous articles.

Ingram called Gill a “scoundrel,” and Gill responded in kind, remarking that the Englishman who was walking about with a “chip on his shoulder” waiting for someone to give him a “blow or a kick,” would now get both from his American adversary. Each one pointed out the defects in his opponent's book and called upon the public to learn the truth as he had set it forth.

As usual, there was a woman in the case, upon whose unoffending shoulders fell the wrath of all concerned. ‘The innocent participant in this affair was the gentle Rhode Island poet, Mrs. Sarah Helen Whitman, once betrothed to Poe, and ever after his champion in the literary world. This lady, whose little book Edgar Poe and His Critics was the first volume put forth in his defence, was always ready to take up cudgels for him, and to her Ingram turned for help in the production of his work. [page 12:]

Ingram wrote Mrs. Whitman for data and information, which she most kindly furnished, and so did Gill, and so, a little later, did Eugene L. Didier, and the result was a storm of indigna- tion from these biographers when each one learned that information which he regarded as his rightful property was shared by his opponents. Into a vortex of controversy between biographers the lady was drawn, and though she conscientiously endeavoured to quell the strife and reconcile the disputants, she could not dispel the bitter enmity which had arisen between Poe's various champions.

While she deplored the jealousy and strife existing between the men who strove to defend Poe, Mrs. Whitman's sympathies were with the Englishman, whose work on Poe she firmly believed would be the one worthy of a permanent place.

Between the years 1873 and 1877, Ingram wrote to this lady hundreds of letters describing the progress of his work and asking for the aid which she was able to bestow. In these, one finds the marvellous enthusiasm of an expert set forth, and one may follow the various steps by which he worked out the unsolved problems, and the clever manœuvring by which Ingram collected from friends of Poe, especially the women who had known him, hundreds of letters, autographs, and manuscripts, many of which he managed to secure as a part of his own collection.

The enthusiasm for Poe which seems to have been at this time greater in England than in America, was greatly augmented by Ingram's activity; he found in Swinburne, Morris, and Rossetti brother enthusiasts, and not content with his exertions in England, he did all in his power to stir up the interest of France in this direction.

And here he came in contact with Stéphane Mallarmé, leader of the Impressionist school of poets, himself an intense admirer of Poe, who was just at this time translating Poe's poems into French. A warm friendship sprang up [column 2:] between these men, who not content with the personal enjoyment of their pet hobby, were both keen to spread through the whole of Europe an increased appreciation of Poe. Those that recall Mallarme's last visit to London, which took place at about this period, describe him as “a little gentleman with a huge portfolio under his arm containing his translation of “The Raven,” startlingly illustrated by Manet, and searching for the home of Swinburne,” with whom he was about to discuss their mutual interest in the American poet.

The accompanying sketch of Ingram made by a young American artist then (1876) studying in London will give some little idea of the former's appearance at this period, when he was about thirty years of age. This little sketch was sent by Ingram to Mrs. Whitman, whose letter of introduction had made him acquainted with the young American girl of whom he writes: “She seems already rather home sick. She sketched off my profile for you but I was not a very patient model, so don’t rely on its exactness.”

With the announcement of the publication of Ingram's first edition of Poe in 1874, he issued a printed slip headed “A Disclaimer,” in which he states his case against Gill, refutes the things Gill has said about his work and closes with the words: “This is my case. Let Mr. Gill now state where his aptly styled Romance of Edgar A. Poe was published, and what portion of it he claims to have been reproduced in my Memoir of Edgar Poe, a work which several friends in England and America know to have been the result of twelve years of research.”

This “twelve years of research” was supplemented by forty years more of painstaking work upon this theme, of which he wrote to Mrs. Whitman in 1876, “I mean to live, labour and be famous yet, my dear friend. Like poor Chenier, ‘I have so much here’ (in my brain) which must some day be wrought out.”

His knowledge that Mrs. Whitman [page 13:] was distressed by the transatlantic quarrel made him anxious to explain his own attitude to her, to whom he writes:

Having to publish the “Disclaimer” has been a very bitter pill to me, because it seemed to me as if I were striving to abrogate to myself the sole right to vindicate Poe, — as if I were jealous of others attempting to rival me there. On my soul I was never inspired by such feelings! Had any properly qualified person undertaken the task of writing Poe's Life I would willingly, and without hope or wish for any kind of reward, have assisted him or her, and have given every scrap I possessed about the poet. When Gill asked me for information I willingly sent him such published papers as I had and would have sent him more had I been able to trust to him, — however, enough of this subject — Gill is bankrupt, I see, and I suppose will take soon to some other method of living.

And he writes concerning his hobby: “T have been very unwell since I wrote you — am still so, and have had cares and worries numberless, but the more I have thought it over, the less I feel able to resign the completion of my work. I must finish my memoir of Poe. My mind can never rest until it has dis- burdened itself of the accumulation of ideas it has made on this subject. But I am still willing to take a partner in the work if I could only find anyone in America willing to labour on it as I have laboured here. But I feel that health and everything urge the speedy completion of this work, so I have begun to gather together rapidly the scattered ends of my story. You will be astounded at the immense amount of reliable data I have garnered together. [column 2:]

In his work of discovery Ingram unearthed a number of Poe's poems not before verified, and he was constantly sending to his American correspondent verses which had been submitted to him, or which he had found among the letters submitted, especially by women whose poems Poe had corrected so generously as to make it uncertain whether the poems were his or theirs. The accompanying poem in Ingram's decorative handwriting is an example of some of the verses the author's life of which he was repeatedly considering.

Being a poet himself of some little merit, Ingram also forwarded for the inspection of his Providence friend, many of his own poems, some of which were published under his pen name, “Dalton Stone”; his early poems show- ing very strongly the influence of his hero, Poe.

Ingram's wrath was especially stirred by a slighting remark of Gill's to the effect that he was “merely a clerk in a public office,” and he exclaims to Mrs. Whitman, “Are Americans generally so ignorant? . . . It is a well-known fact that our leading scientific and literary men are in the Civil Service. Herschel, Profesor Owen, Sir Arthur Helps, W. Rossetti, are or were [page 14:] in Civil Service. A. Trollope and Yates were in the same department as myself. A clerkship in our Civil Service is permanent, and is indicative of a certain amount of influence and education.”

When Eugene L. Didier published his Memoir of Poe, he also came in for a literary thrashing from Ingram, whom he repaid by pointing out that while “everybody knows who discovered America, few people know who discovered Edgar Allan Poe, but this discoverer is an Englishman, namely John H. Ingram.”

Ingram's debt to Mrs. Whitman was voiced by him after her death in 1878, when he wrote to the London Atheneum, on whose staff he then served:

Among the literary remains of Ingram, now coming upon the market, this lady's letters must prove an interesting item.

In the unheralded passing of this eccentric but scholarly Englishman, the world of letters loses one of the last of those picturesque figures who plunged heart and soul into a controversy which has to-day so slight interest for the average reader, yet because of Ingram and his fellow-enthusiasts, permanent literary will surely be enriched, and reliable data concerning Poe and his epoch placed forever on record.