Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 107: Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram, Aug. 13, 1875,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), p. 323 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 323:]

107. Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram. Item 242

My dear friend,

I wrote you a day or two ago that I saw the announcement of an article on E.A.P. in a Boston paper as having appeared in the London Quarterly for July.(1) On enquiry, I found it was not the London Quarterly but the British Quarterly. I read the article this morning in the Athenaeum copy & have just written to the Leonard Scott Publishing Co. in New York for a copy of the number. It is the best critique on Poe's life & genius — take it for all in all — that I have yet seen. It makes honorable mention of your “Memoir,” & does even justice to the idle gossip of the Stoddard fabrications, whose bric-a-brackish character is well characterized. Of course, you have seen it. I am very anxious to know the name of the author. Will you tell me in your next letter or postcard (if that is all the space you can afford me)?

I would send you by this mail the copy of the Southern Review I promised, but wish to make an extract for which I have no time today. I am anxious to see the “omitted lines” of which you spoke, and your answer to the Nation, if it will not be too much trouble to copy it.

The weather is oppressively damp & sultry today. I hope you have cooler & clearer skies in your London world, if indeed, you have not flown away to your beautiful Isle of Wight.

I have always doubted the good-will of Poe's relatives, and am not surprised at what you tell me of their neglect in writing.

Ever faithfully your friend,

I write these hurried lines only to insure a speedy answer to my question about the Quarterly article. You shall hear from me again soon.

[Note appended, dated August 15, from Rose Peckham:]

Dear Mr. Ingram,

You owe me a letter, so this is only to say “How do you do?” to please our dear friend who is a far kinder spirit than I am. I am spending a few days in the city — the loss of a dear little niece is the sad occasion. Perhaps I may find a letter from you on my return to East Putnam. If so, I shall answer at length. Meanwhile, believe me your fried (summer weather has done it) friend,

 

1. This letter has survived only in a copy of it that Ingram made for his files. He sent the original to Dr. A. H. Japp.