Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 175: John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman, Mar. 19, 1877,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 484-486 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 484, continued:]

175. John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman

My dear Friend,

(For I cannot help deeming that your are that at heart, & so I shall, therefore, address you until you restrain me) — I must confess that I am somewhat at a loss how to answer yours of the 2nd. My letter of the 14th Feby. was — certainly, as regards you — written with all my usual affection and regard for you, & without any reserve, & yet you say “something in its tone pains” you, & that you felt “deeply wounded by its acrimonious tone,” & by my evading a request “for a copy of a paragraph in one of Mrs. Clemm's letters” to you, & that I said all your papers should be returned when demanded.

Let me take up these remarks of yours categorically: as regards my tone I really know not what to say — I have, & have had for some years, several American correspondents (I will not say “friends,” for all my friends, save mother & sisters, are gone to seek that bourne whence no traveller returns) — and have been in constant correspondence with them a long while, but not to one of them have I opened my heart & mind as I have to you, nor treated any of them with the confidence & unwavering reliance which I have you, & yet I have not had a single [page 485:] ripple to disturb the surface of our acquaintanceship — that has been reserved for our correspondence — but why? Is it that you have some nearer “friend” — who instills suspicion & mistrust into your mind? Cast a glance over all our past communion &, unaided by anyone, think whether I have ever behaved towards you & your wishes, knowingly, other than you could have desired. I have deferred to your wishes in the matter of my writings about Poe more than I would to any other living person — and shall continue to do so.

As regards “evading” the request. Your letter is at home which asked me to copy the paragraph, but I feel certain that you said “some day when at leisure,” or words to that effect, & never gave me any reason to think you wanted the copy at once.

As regards the interpretation you put upon “demanded.” I am certain that if you read the context, so far from there being anything “acrimonious,” you will find it jocular — or an attempt to be.

I return that letter of Mrs. Clemm's, & will return the others in my next.

You will find that Mrs. C[lemm] was more reliable than you seem to think. I do not think that Poe was in Richmond until June 1849, for his second visit. I was misled myself by those reminiscences of John] Thompson's. I have pretty full knowledge of Poe's whole time for 1848, & do not see that he could have visited Richmond. He certainly did not renew his acquaintance with Mrs. Shelton until latter half of 1849.

I never was “disposed to question & cross examine your testimony” with regard to Miss Blackwell, whose letter to me as well as hers to you, I enclose — but it did seem to me at first flush that I had written to the wrong woman. And you must remember that I nearly always write to you in the midst of official worry & without any means at hand for reference, & that I had quite forgotten for the time that you had any personal knowledge of Miss Blackwell, and in my letter to her I was so careful of your feelings that I in no way hinted that you had communicated the contents of Poe's letter to her to me. Your testimony I do not for one instant question, & did not, only at the moment thought you might have been misinformed — forgetting, as said above, your personal knowledge of Miss B[lackwell]: had I mentioned that she could not so readily have repudiated the affair. Kindly let me have her letter to me, which I have not, & shall not answer.

I have just heard from Mrs. Gove Nichols — not about the Blackwells — to say she thinks of coming to reside in London permanently & hopes then to see me, so we shall be able to have some long chats, I hope. Mrs. Lewis either does not, or will not, know anything about Poe, — recountable. Mrs. Houghton, who is a dear [page 486:] creature, has had terrible domestic troubles, but is firm as a rock. Mrs. Richmond has been most kind. The Tales of the Grotesque and A[rabesque], she sent me, were in Poe's portmanteau when he was found dying.

Pray ask Mr. Harris to let me have the copy of his copy of the Diabolus brochure at his earliest convenience. I hope to have another work, if not two! out soon, & before the life!

I want Davidson to undertake something that way also — all my knowledge & collection is at his service. He, & Browne, & Valentine, are ceaseless in their aid.

Could not Mr. Bartlett name some American collectors of autographs to whom I could apply for copies of Poe's letters? Mrs. H[arriet] Beecher] Stowe probably has one or more of Poe's letters in her immense collection, but I never could bring myself to write & ask a favour of her!

You wind up your terrible letter with remark about Didier, & say that you are not aware that he has ever spoken “an unkind or disparaging word” about me. Nor am I — why should he? He has, indeed, been very careful not to make a single allusion to the Mr. Ingram whose researches he has not only availed himself of but whose writing he has copied — paragraph after paragraph — without the addition of even inverted commas. Facts are everybody's when published, & although want of courtesy or honesty may cause the acknowledgment of their authority to be omitted, the ideas of other people are only appropriated by rogues. Poe's cause can never be aided by making him out, either, to have been an industrious commonplace dandy.

As regards the letter I sent you of D[idier]'s, & the accompanying information, I did so in remembrance of what you had said in former days, that you were so afraid of things not by Poe, being imputed to him. Poe may have composed “Alone,” but any court of law would decide that Mr. D[idier] wrote the MS. of which facsimile appeared in Scribner's. He has taken what he deems a popular side now, but his whole conduct is beneath contempt, whilst his facts are as fictitious, &, therefore, as hurtful as Griswold s. My data were not always right, but I never, knowingly, misstated.

Goodbye for a few days. Ere this reaches you I sincerely hope that you will be free from the misguiding influence, & once more be prepared to look upon, as your ever faithful friend,

P.S. I have written to Miss Peckham & had reply & written to her again.