Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 105: John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman, July 22, 1875,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 315-319 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 315, continued:]

105. John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman

My dear Friend,

I am getting anxious to hear from you again as you seem to be unwell, judging from your last letters, that I look forward every mail for some token of your wellbeing. Again, I cannot help thinking your [page 316:] Rose has miss represented me — would we could meet and make all clear!

I am very poorly, weak in body & mind just now, & scarcely know what I said in my last. I find I did not return your extract about the swim, which, as I have a copy, or rather original, I now do. I have written Col. Mayo & he has promised a Virginia correspondent to send me his reminiscences of Poe. His account is valuable, as it corroborates Poe's own account as to distance — vide my “Memoir” — & differs from that sent me by a schoolfellow of Poe's & which is too much like Griswold's 7 mile journey. Several of Poe's schoolfellows & boyhood's friends are coming to light.

The journey to Europe — entre nous — if not to Greece, seems to have been a fait accompli. Did Poe never allude to it to you? Mrs. Clemm & Stoddard, you must remember, are the only contrary evidence as yet. The latter is on the wrong track — his whole sketch I could pick, piece by piece, & tell him where he got it from. As regards Mrs. Clemm, we know what her memory was worth. Data and facts of his earlier life accumulate so fast & create such continuous correspondence that I find it impossible to keep you au fait with everything.

By the way, did you send Lotos Leaves? I have never seen anything of the book — & while I think of it — I want to write to Mr. Wellford, Mr. Bartlett's friend, and, I have, unfortunately, mislaid the little slip with his address. For fear I might not find it, can you get it for me again? I have returned all the books Mr. Harris so kindly lent me to the binder. Amongst those who have been giving my Richmond correspondents evidence is the unknown lady quoted by Stoddard, the originator of all the bad legends in the early part of Stoddard's sketch, i.e., the desertion of the father; the habitual evasion & deceit; the so bad that other boys were not allowed to play with him; the friends who thought his early productions trash; & the Mr. Gilliat story of the 17 coats!!! I don’t know the lady's name yet, but her dates, &c., are so contradictory that I shall be quite prepared to demolish her ladyship notwithstanding her circumstantial air. It is something — is it not? — to have traced such a host of libels to one source?(1)

I begin to clearly discern now why Poe was not cared for by his family — they have not written to me again & my self-respect will not let me write again direct but, I fancy, I can put the pressure on elsewhere — they could assist greatly.

En passant, the same Richmond lady tries to throw doubts on Miss Rosalie's paternity. I cannot contrive to tell you all or a tithe of the little bits of evidence I am getting together of the early life, but I believe that if I survive to tell the story, Poe's biography will be one of the most interesting & yet truthful ever penned. [page 317:]

A nice long letter from John Neal a short time ago.(2)

Ossian Dodge, who knew Poe in his latter years, spent a few hours at my house last week & when I showed him my store of original Poe letters & MSS., was fairly astounded. He said, “For years I have been trying to get an autograph of Poe's, but am still unsuccessful, & here are you, who have never been in America, with all these!” He brought his daguerreotype of Poe, given him by the poet — ’twas taken, I think he said, in 1845-6 & is, as if the original of one of those you sent me. I showed him every portrait of Poe I possessed, & before he knew I had had it engraved he seized the one you gave me & from which the engraving is taken, & exclaimed, “That is Poe! ’tis the only one portraying him in his best moods!” I was very pleased & at once sent off to you, Mrs. Houghton, Valentine, the sculptor of Richmond, and the University of Virginia, engravings. If you receive yours safely, & wish it for any friend, I can send one more, but I have only two left.

An item — the second Mrs. Allan is, I hear, niece of General Scott & he was one of Poe's best friends to the last — that, in itself, is a disproof of the Southern Lit. Messenger — Griswold story.

What do you think of the enclosed? It is a copy of the poem offered me for $100. The tone is Poësque, but what do you say to the caligraphy? Don’t let it be seen yet.(3)

Since writing the above I have spent nearly one hour looking for this copy (I have a copy) & got quite sick & frightened at its disappearance. I must get a change & respite from work quickly — sometimes my mind becomes a complete blank on matters that I should be quite au fait with & I grow so nervous I don’t know what to do. I do so dread softening of the brain. I would rather die a dozen deaths than become insane — but it is too terrible to think about! Forgive me if I am incoherent. I am just now so overworked & worried I don’t know what to do & yet I’ve so much to say.

What do you mean by saying “I cannot quite make you out?” Once upon a time you could make me out to an iota — it is that prickly Rose has been shaking your preconceived opinions.

Did I ever tell you that I had discovered Stoddard's anonymous attacks upon Poe in the Round Table (New York) as far back as 1863-4?(4) Or that I had seen a vol. of verses by Mrs. St. Leon Loud called Wayside Flowers?(5) They seemed, to my casual glance, very poor stuff — entre nous.

A very grand edition of a French translation of “The Raven” — a large square, as large as a table — has appeared & the translator & artist have sent me a copy — ’tis now en route — full particulars on its arrival.(6)

I hope you’ve received my card safely. I cannot attempt to give my views herein of Poe's mental moods, but all will be worked out [page 318:] thoroughly in the biography which I hope to make not only a chef d’oeuvre, but to your entire satisfaction.

I asked Browne to send you the Southern Magazine. I have not got my copy yet.

Horne is just about to bring out a very much revised edition of his Cosmo di Medici — it is a chef d’oeuvre, indeed.(7) You shall have copy. Since the Cenci, ’tis the finest drama to my mind, of this age.

I’m not afraid of “the coil” between rival ladies. You break off about Mrs. Richmond — is she alive? Or any of the Locke family? Do not think I hesitate between Mrs. H[oughton] & Mrs. L[ewis]. I don’t. I prefer the former altogether, & I shall thoroughly sift & arrange conflicting claims. Do let me know whether you got any reply about the MS. lines “To Helen.” If not, I’ll write, but you should get Mr. Harris or some friend to call on the Dr. & insist. I saw the Cleavelands again twice & shall probably visit them in Paris — they tell Mrs. Lewis they are charmed with me, but you know how much that goes for. Do you know that Mrs. Nichols is also Catholic — they are perverting [sic] in America with a vengeance.

Re. Stoddard — I am grieved to annoy you, but see how difficult it is to speak as I would through the post. I wanted him not in any way to deem you responsible for the Civil Service paper, but more of this hereafter. I must get a copy made of my letter to the Nation & send you. I defy them to insert it — they dare not, I am assured. As regards Gill, I think he must have sent an incorrect copy of Wertenbaker's letter, knowing it to be shameful — but it is as well to know whom to be cautious of. Does he allude in Lotos Leaves to Poe's foreign journey? There is no doubt about January being Poe's birth month. I return Mrs. Houghton's letters.

Much left over for my next. This should have gone Saturday — was very poorly — fainting fit yesterday. Yours ever — here & hereafter,

 

1. Edward V. Valentine had sent to Ingram on July 2, 1875, a copy of a six-page letter addressed by a Mrs. Dixon of Richmond to “Messrs. Editors,” in which she, very likely with the collaboration of Mrs. Ellis, wife of John Allan's business partner, had related these stories of Poe's youthful misdeeds. Items 236 and 237 in the Ingram Poe Collection.

2. This was Neal's letter of May 10, 1875, noted on p. 310.

3. We learn later that Ingram did not enclose a copy of a poem (see his letter of Sept. 15, 1875, p. 327). The poem in question was Poe's “Alone,” and the handwriting was genuine. The copy Ingram had seen was a photographic reproduction of the manuscript. For details of the complicated transaction involved, see Irby B. Cauthen, “Poe's Alone: Its Background, Source, and Manuscript,” Studies in Bibliography, 3 (1950-51), 284-91.

Poe had written “Alone” in an album of Miss Lucy Holmes of Baltimore, later wife of Judge Isaiah Balderston. Eugene L. Didier found the lines in the album, owned by Mrs. Balderston's daughter, Mrs. Dawson, in 1875, had them photographed after touching up the manuscript himself by adding the title and a conjectural dateline, “Baltimore, March, [page 319:] 17, 1829,” then submitted a reproduction of the lines as “a newly-discovered poem by Edgar A. Poe” to Scribner's Monthly. The touched-up poem appeared in that magazine for September 1875. It is reproduced here on page 324.

4. The Round Table was a brashly direct, unconventional weekly journal begun in Dec. 1863 in New York. In the beginning R. H. Stoddard was an editorial assistant; later most contributions came from the magazine's nationwide audience. Suspended in July 1864, it was revived in July 1866 with the subtitle “A Saturday Review of Literature, Society, and Art.”

5. Mrs. Margaret Barstow St. Leon Loud (1812?-1889) published Wayside Flowers: A Collection of Poems (Boston: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, 1851).

6. Le Corbeau, Poëme par Edgar Poe. Traduction Francaise de Stéphane Mallarmé, avec illustrations par Edouard Manet (Paris: R. Lesclide, 1875).

7. Richard Hengist Horne (1802-1884), Cosmo de’ Medici (London: G. Rivers, 1875).