Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 134: John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman, Jan. 13 and Jan. 15, 1876,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 384-386 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 384, continued:]

134. John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman

My dear Mrs. Whitman,

I cannot express to you the intense disgust with which I heard from you the words relating to Mr. Gill's scandalous charge in the Memorial volume. I have now just received the volume itself from Mr. Widdleton, with a copy of his correspondence with Gill & an endeavour to excuse himself for having inserted what he knows is a lie. He says he put it in because Gill is a publisher & he wished to make peace!

I have written to the Athenaeum a short letter detailing the facts of the case, & not referring to anyone but Gill & Mr. Widdleton, extracts from whose correspondence prove that Gill is a most unscrupulous liar. As our publications are honest, this statement is certain to appear, & I shall reprint it, & send copies to such American & European publications as are likely to notice it. I shall send it by Saturday's mail.

If such an impudent scamp as Gill lived in the “Old World” he [page 385:] would be ejected from the abodes of every decent person, but of late I have but too clearly seen that such rogues are not only tolerated but even feared in the United States: even you yourself condone his insults & his lies to you, & appear to deem his conduct quite natural. I fear he is but one of many, and I therefore think I had better wipe my hands of such a crew, for it is hard to touch pitch & not be defiled.

Legitimate difficulties are to me only incentives to labour, but to have my name dragged through the mire by such filthy scum as this detestable Yankee, I will not endure!!!

Only a few days ago a friend & correspondent of yours wrote to me about Gill saying, “Even your grandchildren will curse the day in which your name became connected with that rogue's,” and I laughed at what I deemed ridiculous exaggeration, but now too plainly see that he knew the man.

I can now understand why poor Poe found the United States, as Baudelaire remarks, but one large prison. I have had enough of it.

I so gladly sacrificed literary & pecuniary rewards to try & work out this vindication — my health has suffered, & yet I should not have repined, knowing that I had cleared a noble & unfortunate man's fame. I would have fought & have won against all the tricks of your Stoddards, Didiers, Fairfields, and like, but it is quite impossible to sully my name, which is untarnished, by having to have it connected with this Gill's. He is an unmitigated scoundrel & yet, as you see, able to do & act as he likes. I see but one course open to me after having disproved his allegations (which are even worse in his letters to Widdleton than any I have yet heard of having been made public — he accuses me of deliberate perjury), and that is to give up having any more to do, or say, in connection with Edgar Poe.

If you know of anyone, whom you know to be honest, I will deliver to them as a present my own collection & give them headings of the papers belonging to other people which I must return to them, unless they will permit of their delivery to the person named by you.

Do not place any reliance in the “Memoir” in this Memorial volume, as Widdleton says the revised copy came too late, but that he had ventured upon making some alterations in my sketch!! He says he has also substituted my sketch (?) for Griswold's in the complete edition of the Works, & asks if I will forward such further material as I may have & he will endeavour to make good use of it. Of course, I shall not condescend to notice this, but return him his Gill correspondence without any remark.

I shall always be glad to hear from you on any subject, but you are the only Northern person connected with literature whose words I can place any reliance on — as a rule!!! I have found my Southern correspondents strictly honorable, not answering questions when they [page 386:] were uncertain. I am thankful that I have met & known some honest Americans, or I should deem the nation populated by devils.

Goodbye, my dear friend — may you obtain an abler — a more faithful confederate you cannot obtain than your eternal well wisher,

P.S. I have delayed until today's mail in order to have the “Disclaimer” ready.(1) I shall circulate it widely, through my correspondents, in the United States.

Mr. Widdleton seems ashamed of himself & has sent me his correspondence with this Gill, who does not hesitate to charge me flatly with the most deliberate perjury. I wish I could get at him by law.

I trust that I have not said anything to wound your feelings, but you cannot fail to see that I have been most disgracefully treated.

Ever yours,

 

1. Ingram's “Disclaimer” was published in the London Athenaeum. It is reproduced on p. 387 as an illustration, taken from p. 10 of Caroline Ticknor's “Ingram — Discourager of Poe Biographies,” New York Bookman, 44 (Sept. 1916), pp. 8-14.