Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 049: John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman, May 5, 1874,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 147-150 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 147, continued:]

49. John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman

My dear Mrs. Whitman,

Yours of the 17th & 21st April to [hand?].(1) The enclosure about Hood many thanks for. When [illegible] I will duly return, as also the Index &c. of Poe's [illegible]. That collection, I fancy, they have in Museum. I [will] look for it, as I want to copy the Dedication to [Mrs.] E. B. Browning. I will also see about altering “1847” to “1844” in copy of E.P. & His Critics therein. Th[ere is] a black mark in my copy which may or may n[ot be an] alteration. You allude to another edition being p[ublished]. If you have many copies on hand, you m[ay] find it worth while to send some to an En[glish] publisher. I would galdly [[gladly]] look out a respectable one. But if you have only a few ’tis not worth the trouble. Should you think seriously of a new edition you might arrange for a publisher in London (here). For a new edition, I might be able to suggest a few slight additions or changes, if you would not mind. Very slight — but I will hear your views first.

I will ask Mr. Davidson to get that no. of Harper's [illegible] have seen it (looked it out in Museum) [illegible] might probably get the view of Charlottesville engraved. I don’t think Miss Poe could do [very] much, but she could, doubtless, confirm [illegible] time & place [page 148:] of her brother's birth & know something of his boyhood, journey to England, &c. Mrs. Lewis [did not] give me the slightest publishable information, though very friendly & willing. In fact we do not talk much about Poe — strictly entre nous, I don’t think she can understand him as we do, but she has a warm sympathy for him & a scorn [for his] traducers. I should like to hear your opinion of Mrs. Clemm, as I do not wish to misjudge her. Do you think she was a bad woman? Did you ever see her? I doubt not that [she] was given to begging, but that may have been [through] misfortune & not fault. While I think of it, Dunn English is dead, I am told.(2) [Briggs] I shall not mention by name. [illegible] nameless in my “Memoir” will doubtless be [illegible] to remain so.

I have just completed “The [True] Story of Edgar Poe's Life” for the Quarterly, & [now] for the full life! I had to allude to your engagement with Poe, to refute Griswold. I told it nearly as in “New Facts,” merely adding, that probably the rupture was neither occasioned by either Mrs. W. or Poe. Was that right so to say? I send another copy of “New Facts” — not that I fancy them of any account. The mistakes will all be corrected in the “True Story.” Do not trouble or bother about anything in the way of discrepancy that I point our [[out]] in E.P. & His Critics, unless I specially ask for replies.

I have not had time to write to Mr. O’Connor yet. I am doing too much as it is, but I cannot rest now until I have finished this life of Poe. Mr. O’Connor's review of E.P. & His Critics is the only one I kept back, as I thought it better than the others, but I will return it shortly. I don’t think there is anything that I can use in it. I like Mangan, too, although crusty about his being compared with Poe. You will see my paper on him some day.(3)

En passant, my mother tells of a Miss Power (of Ireland) rescued by her father & his brother officers, from a convent in Portugal, during the Peninsula War, she having been detained against her will.

I have written to our Consul at Baltimore — to fly from one subject to another — about Miss Poe, as I cannot get replies from any Americans south — not one has answered. No answers received either from Mr. Gill, Lowell, Eveleth, Simms, Miss Poe, or her helper, Rev. G. Powell. Nor from President of Peabody Institute, &c., &c. You can comprehend how this cripples me. I write & hope for some answer & wait patiently three or four weeks, & then have to go all over the ground again. What a Providence that I chanced to find you out. I shall begin to believe in “secret affinities.” We were bound & fated, I shall think, to get acquainted. Would that I could get to have a viva voce instead of a spiritual interview!

Don’t trouble any more about autographs. The publishers have that [page 149:] of Mr. Lotto's, than which none could be better. Mrs. Lewis has several, but none equal to the Pabodie letter.

The Broadway Journal contains much of value — much that I hope to reprint. It will help too, to supply & correct Griswold's garbled reviews. If you find it unpleasant, or grieves you, to continue the history of your personal acquaintance with Poe, do not distress youself [[yourself]]. It could not be published, so do not let me intrude upon its sanctity any further.

Many thanks for the German “Raven,” &c., but I can return it eventually, only I want the engravers to have the portrait for use & I think I may get the translations reprinted in a German paper when I get time to carry out my ideas on the subject. My grand difficulty is time — time — time. It will fly so! I have some idea — time permitting — to get up a book wholly & solely about “Raven” literature — this is entre nous — to contain Poe's “Raven,” a collection of the parodies & translations, history of the poem, &c. I do not think you can have any idea of the great number of parodies & imitations, in England and America, of “The Raven.”(4) This translation would then be useful. Eventually everything shall be returned to you. I do not care to have & hold other people's property & will duly “render unto Ceasar,” &c.

Paper on Dunn English in Godey's was not written until after Broadway had been given up, so there is nothing there about it.(5)

I think I shall get Mrs. Osgood's name out of Temple Bar article, & fancy I should alter it to Mrs. Lewis? At all events, it is only given as a belief. Alice & Phoebe Cary's poems, I love. Clovernook I knew by name, but have not read it.(6) I am going — when time comes — to write a paper on them in my series of biographical literary sketches, such as Mangan, &c. If you have any information, or interesting letter, &c. of or from them, perhaps you can kindly lend it or them to me? Nothing, however, will cause me to deviate from Edgar Poe's “Memoir,” which I hope to complete by end of this, or beginning of next month. The extract in Harper's Monthly, from Poe's “Annabel Lee,” as I believe. I pointed out to you, differs in some words from the written version in the 4-vol. collection. Do you think a complete version of Stoddard's copy could be obtained? I am rather afraid, however, to ask him, as I do not want him to know of my purposed collection until it is, ready for publication, so perhaps I had better let that alone. With the publication of this said “Memoir” of mine, I do not mean to relinquish my efforts to obtain more information about Poe for further editions or, perhaps, a separate life. Only it will be a starting point &, at the same time, a resting place. It even may elicit something.

Thanks for your picturesque view of Fordham. Do you know anything of the interior of the house? Mrs. Lewis differs from a printed [page 150:] account I have & which must be incorrect in its description of number of rooms, &c. Mrs. Lewis says two bedrooms above, & sitting room below, with kind of cellar or kitchen underneath: ’tis not of much consequence, but it shakes my confidence in the Sixpenny Magazine paper to find it so incorrect about a simple thing — & yet one so easy to verify.

Mrs. Lewis does not think Poe ever crossed the Atlantic, but his account of his school is too exact: he painted Stoke Newington as it was photographically — with pre-Raphaelite minuteness.

I must conclude. I hope you’ll get the Gentleman's Magazine. I am very anxious for fear that you may not like it. I hope you will. I would not on any account, do or say anything to annoy you on this subject. It was written under extreme pressure. In the “Memoir” I do not think you will be able to find a single thought or sentence objectionable. By the way, I duly received that copy of Poe's note written on the steamboat. I must have alluded to it in one of my letters, I feel certain, although it came when I was so unwell. It may interest your friend Mr. O’Connor to hear that his friend Walt Whitman — whose writings I really must examine some day — is said to be very popular in Denmark & a new translation & favourable review of Leaves of Grass has just been brought out there. But, doubtless, he knows it. If you come across a poem of W.W.'s, perhaps you could kindly send it for my opinion.

Cannot I send you anything? I send you another copy of “New Facts.” I have circulated four dozen copies amongst our literati & some are getting very curious about my “Memoir.”

A very kind letter from Mr. Davidson today, but no information yet. In haste, yours, ever the same,

P.S. Before reviewing Miss Power's ballads, I should like to know if she would like to get them published here.

 

1. Through the years this letter has been fragmented by the paper crumbling; the right hand side of page 1 and the left hand side of page 2 are mutilated.

2. Thomas Dunn English did not die until 1902.

3. A brief note in the London Athenaeum, Nov. 17, 1877, announces that a critical and biographical article on Mangan, written by John H. Ingram, will appear in the Dec. issue of Dublin University Magazine.

4. And he did just that. The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe, with Literary and Historical Commentary by John H. Ingram was published in London in 1885 (George Redway).

5. Louis Antoine Godey (1804-1878) was publisher and proprietor, with Charles Alexander, of Godey's Lady's Book from 1830 until 1877. He published reviews by Poe as well as Poe's controversial “The Literati of New York City,” beginning in May and ending in October, 1846.

6. See p. [[pp.]] 124-25, n. 1.