Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 106: Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram, Aug. 10, 1875,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 320-322 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 320, continued:]

106. Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram. Item 241

My dear friend,

I received the day before yesterday your most welcome letter of July 22. I am grieved to the heart to learn that you have been so unwell. Do not, I entreat you, for the sake of all who love you, do not overtask yourself so much. Take time to rest & recuperate during these sultry August days.

You are wrong in attributing my silence to your “prickly Rose.” She is thoroughly & heartily your friend, although she may sometimes indulge in a prickly kind of persiflage with those to whom she is, at heart, most loyal. She has not been in Providence since the interview of which I told you, & will return to Europe in November. I have been too languid & inert to answer her last piquant letter of July 26, or your post card of July 6. Indeed, I thought by your writing in this diplomatic way & requesting me to answer in the same that you were too much occupied to care for longer letters, even had I been well enough to write them.

Thanks for the engraving. I was very glad to learn that it was selected by Mr. Dodge as the best of the portraits. That seems to be the opinion of all who have seen it, with the exception of Mrs. Houghton. I think you told me she did not like the portrait with which your “Memoir” is illustrated? You say the daguerre which Mr. Dodge showed you as having been given him by Poe is apparently the original of the photographs I sent you, the portraits taken from what I call the Ultima Thule portrait, i.e., the daguerreotype taken at the office of Masury & Hartshorn in Providence in November 1848, a few days before the one which you selected for your volume was taken at the same office for me. The original “Ultima Thule” daguerre was [page 321:] framed in a large black walnut frame & remained for several years on exhibition in the gallery of the artists by whom it was taken. Mr. Manchester, then in Masury's employ, took these portraits himself. He bought out Masury & Hartshorn & had this original portrait (daguerreotype) of Poe in his possession until it mysteriously disappeared some years ago. While in his possession, Mr. Coleman took from it the photograph I sent you. I believe I have told you all this before, but I repeat it now to show you that Poe could not have given the original of this picture to Mr. Dodge, since he lived less than a year from the time it was taken. If you ever come to Providence you can verify what I have told you from the lips of Mr. Coleman & Mr. Edwin Manchester, who are severally at the head of large photograph establishments in the city.

It may well be that a copy of the original may have been taken, so like it as to deceive the very artist who took the original. But it is very unlikely that Poe could have procured such a copy & given it to Mr. Dodge. If he has a true copy of that wonderful daguerreotype, I would give any sum under fifty dollars for a sight of it. But, if he says Poe gave it to him, & that the daguerre was taken in [18]45 or [18]46, it cannot, in the nature of things, be the one of which I sent you a photograph as taken by Coleman. Can you solve this riddle for me?

I wish if you have opportunity in any future notice of Poe & the Poe portraits, you would speak of the two pictures taken in Providence & give the dates of each. When I write out for you the history of that epoch, you will see that the two portraits forcibly illustrate the varying states of his mind at that eventful period of his life. They are, moreover, far the most characteristic that have ever been taken of him. I have made a long story about the Ultima Thule portrait, but I hope you will see the gist of it.

The incidents of Poe's visit to Providence at the time these portraits were taken I was about to write out for you last summer when I received a letter from you saying, “Do not trouble yourself to write me anything more of your personal experiences, etc., since they cannot, as you say, be published.” Within the last few months you have written to the effect that I do not write so confidentially as formerly. If I do not, it is only because I have feared to encumber you with facts not available for use. I will soon tell you briefly what I know of his Richmond associations, etc., and other things which may interest, even if they may not be published during my life.

This moment I have received your postal card of July 28.(1) I am so glad you have found the poem. I do not think I can be mistaken as to its authenticity. I will return it at once.

I have not yet written to Buchanan, I am so hopeless of obtaining the lost MS. Nor is Dr. Buchanan so much to blame as you suppose, since [page 322:] the poem was sent to him voluntarily, & not at his request. You say why not ask Mr. Harris to call on him? But St. Louis is thousands of miles away; nevertheless, I will, to please you, make another attempt.

Mr. Harris & his wife are at the White Mountains, have been away for weeks. I lent him before he went a copy of the Southern Magazine for June, with the notice of your book. I will send you the copy, since you have not received one. I see that the London Quarterly for July has an article on Poe.(2) I shall receive a copy in a few days.

There is one request I made of you which you have overlooked. It is that you send a transcript of the lines omitted from the poem “To Marie Louise.” If you give the line which precedes their introduction, I shall know where to place them. Do not think me unkind towards Mrs. H[oughton] or unduly suspicious in recommending a cautious & careful consideration of all the so-called literary remains of the great genius whose memory you have done so much to illustrate. Do not for a moment distrust my profound interest in your work — my sincere & genuine personal sympathy and affectionate regard for you as a friend. Do be careful of your health. Send me, when you can, your letter to the Nation. So Mrs. Cleaveland is a friend of Mrs. Lewis, is she? I am glad to know that Stoddard is the author of those dastardly articles in the Round Table.

I have not heard from Davidson for months. Have you any reason to doubt his loyalty to the cause we have at heart?

But goodbye now, & believe me ever faithfully & affectionately your friend,

P.S. I will see Mr. Bartlett soon about Mr. Wellford's address, which I have forgotten. Will also try to send you copy of the article in Lotus Leaves. Gill sent you through me an accurate copy of the Wertenbaker letter as he received it from me. He has corrected the date in his later issues. He says nothing of the foreign expedition, the visit to Europe, I think.

I was interested in what you tell me of the large illustrated copy of “The Raven.” Tell me more about it when you have seen it.

You see I am getting very tired. I have said nothing of my health, for I am unwilling to weary you with useless details of suffering. I am sometimes very anxious to escape from “this fever called living,” and the time seems long — the years of trial & suffering. But I know well that the life which awaits us will make the troubled dream of the present seem lighter than a summer cloud.

 

1. There is no postcard from Ingram dated July 28, 1875, in Mrs. Whitman's papers.

2. “Edgar Allan Poe,” British Quarterly Review, 62 (1875), 89-102. Unsigned, but written by Dr. Alexander Hay Japp (1837-1905), a Scotch author and publisher.