Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 150: Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram, May 19, 1876,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 419-422 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 419, continued:]

150. Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram. Item 292

My dear friend,

I have waited so impatiently the receipt of an answer to my question as to the paragraph in your letter of April 6 [5] in which you say, “Poe's lines to Helen (headed ‘Lines to —— ——’) appeared in Sartain's Union Magazine for Novr. How then about Graham's?” I have underlined the words just as you wrote them.

You say in your letter of May 2 that you, yourself, found the lines in Sartain's Union Magazine, noted the discrepancy, & at once wrote to me. This, you say, “is the whole story.”

If you found the lines in Sartain's Union Magazine, all that I told you about them was a fiction, not to say a falsehood, since Sartain's [page 420:] Union Magazine was not published until January 1849, after Edgar Poe & I had parted never again to meet.

I was so sure of this that on the very day when I last wrote to you, I addressed a letter to Mrs. Sarah Josepha Hale, requesting her to ascertain for me, if possible, the date of Sartain's first number. On the first of May I received the enclosed card verifying my impression.

Either you have been mistaken about seeing the lines in Sartain's Magazine or all that I told you is to use the mildest term — well I will not characterize it.

You cannot wonder that I feel acutely the imputation which your words, “How then about Graham's?” has charged me with.

This is not a trivial matter, as your strongly emphasized words show that it was not, in your own mind. This was not a mere “slip of the pen.”

You have not, I fear, dealt frankly with me. You have had reasons for thus calling me to question about the matter which you are unwilling to confide to me.

You need not fear to do so. I will not betray you. I will keep your secret, if you will only tell me frankly why you asked the question. If you will not do this, you certainly will not refuse to reexamine the Sartain magazines in which you say that you found the “Lines to —— ——” and tell me the month & year in which they appeared there.

I have told you before that they appeared in Graham's in the autumn of 1848. I was not quite sure of the month, as I think I told you. I have, however, satisfied myself that it was in November. Though I have long ago lost every copy of the magazine & have never seen a copy since, save those contained in the two bound volumes of the magazine from which I copied for you Graham's letter two years ago, volumes which I obtained after long enquiry & of which you yourself afterward obtained a copy.

I read with interest Mrs. Smith's letter. I will venture to keep it a few days longer because I wish to copy a portion of it. I will return it soon. I had many things to say to you, but must wait for the next steamer, having been interrupted till I have only time to send a parting word. I have had a beautiful letter from Mallarmé telling me that he had ordered a copy of his Raven sent me which I might receive possibly a few days after the receipt of his letter, or, perhaps a few days before. His letter was dated April 4, and the book has not yet come. I wrote him yesterday. The postmaster here has sent orders to have the matter looked up in New York, but I am afraid it has been intercepted. I told him that I was glad to learn from you that he was translating some of the critical papers.

I think with you about the handwriting of the “Alone,” that it bears [page 421:] no resemblance to Poe's. On the other [hand?],there are unmistakable indications that the “March 17, 1829” are Mr. Didier's. But I think he may have been told that the lines were in Poe's handwriting & have believed it. It was Miss Rice who told me the name of Mrs. Balderston, the lady in whose album the poem was assumed to have been written.

I received from Miss Rice some time ago an intimation that Mr. Didier would be most happy to be of use to me in any way that I might point out. I had asked her if she knew Mr. Didier, the gentleman who had sent a poem purporting to have been a facsimile copy of the original to Scribner's. She told me that he was an intimate friend of hers & would be most happy to serve me in any way in his power, &c. I made no reply to this statement, but asked her if she knew the name of the lady, & she replied that it was Mrs. Judge Balderston. Recently I have had two letters from Mr. Didier, who, it seems, is proposing to bring out a life of Poe!! He says he has obtained much valuable information about his early life, etc. He, of course, wanted something from me. But I was reticent in my reply, tho’ cordial & glad of any new light on the subject, etc., etc. I hear absolutely nothing of Gill. I fancy he has dematerialized, as our spiritualistic friends say.

Mr. Harris sent a long message to you a few evenings ago. He advises that you print the [18]27 poems without letting it be known where the copy is or that the title was etc., etc., By a Bostonian. He knows, or thinks he knows, how this copy came to find its way to England. He has left the city for a few weeks. He apparently envies you the sight of this little book. There is nothing in the world like the exultation of a book collector over a new & rare pamphlet. He wishes to know if you can find in the National Collection the pamphlet of which I spoke to you summer before last, called The Musiad or Ninead, by Diabolus, which was published in Baltimore in 1830, & which was a poem with notes about the authors of that day, in which Poe was spoken of.(1) I wrote to John Neal about it. The notes were torn off. Mr. H[arris] thinks we might find something of great interest in them. I think I wrote to you about it.

You will remember my friend Lyman Dwight who died a little more than a year ago in New Providence (Nassau), & who took such an interest in your proposed life of Poe, but did not live to see it in print. I wrote something about his newly erected monument a few days ago under the title of “An Old Graveyard,” which I enclose & which may bring you near to me in my Rhode Island home.

Goodbye, & may heaven bless you & keep you. I hope we shall not lose faith in each other, for it is hard to get back again when lost. Vale, vale.

[page 422:]

 

1. The late Professor T. O. Mabbott firmly rejected this 101-line pamphlet as Poe's work.