Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 126: Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram, Nov. 30, 1875,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 371-372 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 371, continued:]

126. Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram. Item 265

My dear friend,

Your kind letter received yesterday. On the 19th Inst. I sent letter & papers — no, the papers, with a postal card; were mailed on the 26th. I hope the papers will arrive safely.

Gill had nothing to do with the exercises on the 17th save the recitation of “The Raven.” You have nothing to fear from him as an antagonist, I fancy. I have not yet seen the London [Quarterly]. Was the facsimile in his usual finished hand? Dr. Moran's account seems to have been generally received cum grano.

Mrs. Richmond is living, I believe. I have never seen her, but heard from a friend who met her at Rye Beach (a Mass. watering place) a few [page 372:] years ago that she asked after me in a friendly spirit, but did not speak of Poe.

I am delighted to know that Widdleton has accepted your offer. I hope he will get your revised & corrected proof. Mr. Eveleth of Thomaston, Maine, wrote me yesterday that he had just read your article in the International. He made a few criticisms. One in relation to the apparent contradiction in the quotation of the lines pencilled on the margin of the Broadway Journal copy of “Ligeia” to the statement that the lines to Helen were written before Poe knew her.

I noticed this apparent discrepancy myself, & intended to have called your attention to it.

I explained to Mr. Eveleth that I had been so importuned by friends & strangers for some single line, or even word, of Poe's writing that, overpersuaded, I had often clipped two or three words from some fragment of his writing to comply with their wishes. In this instance I had cut from the pencilled lines “The poem I sent you,” etc. the words, “through Mrs. O[sgood]'s description,” that is, recognized you thro’ Mrs. Osgood's description. I explained to Mr. Eveleth that in sending you the volumes of the Broadway I had pointed out to you the unfinished sentence & given you the missing words, but that in hurriedly preparing your notes for the press, you had probably mislaid my letter & had given the lines, without reflecting that in their incomplete meaning they seemed to contradict the fact afterwards stated that the poem was written before he had met me. But this can be remedied by giving the whole in a future version.

I am so glad to hear that you are to get your Life out in Germany, & that the French will be founded upon it.

Do you think Mallarmé will send me his Raven?

I must send you the account I received in a private letter from Worthington, about which I will tell you hereafter. I could not help sending a copy to the Journal. It was so graphic.

I must close at once, or miss tomorrow's mail.

Goodnight and a thousand blessings till next time.

Your faithful friend,