Text: John H. Ingram, “More Romances About Poe,” Baltimore Sun (Baltimore, MD), vol. CXLIV, no. 97, February 21, 1909, p. 22, cols. 1-2

[page 22, column 1, continued:]

More Romances About Poe.

Messrs Editors:

You will confer a favor by printing the inclosed letter from Mr. J. H. Ingram, the editor and biographer of Poe, which he wishes to appear in a Baltimore paper.

H.

———

The Century Magazine (New York), for January, contains an article purporting to relate the “Romance of Poe and Mrs. Whitman.” It is prefaced by an editorial note to the effect — the wording is very obscure — that the material has been “garbled” in the version given by Mr. Ingram, in his “Life of Edgar Allan Poe,” and confessedly “reprinted” (i. e. copied) literatim by Professor Harrison in his compilation, “Poe's Life and Letters.” Of this so-called [column 2:] “imperfect version,” the Century, so far, only gives one letter, purporting to have been written to Miss Blackwell, an English lady, by Edgar Poe. This letter was placed at my service by Mrs. Whitman, but as it was presumed to have been written to another lady I naturally asked that lady's assent before using it. Miss Blackwell, in her reply, now before me, assured me there was some mistake, as no such letter could have been written to her, and asked me not “to allow her name to appear in connection with it.” Of course, I omitted the lady's name and merely quoted a few lines referring to Mrs. Whitman, herself. All such considerations are foreign to the compilers of the Century “romance:” they print the letter in full, as they do, also, two of Mrs. Clemm's usual appeals to her correspondents for eleemosynary help. I had and have complete copies of these two letters, as also of some dozens more in a similar strain to various persons, from the same unfortunate lady, but, as they are of no to the general public, I have deemed it more honorable, for the sake of all concerned, to suppress them.

The remainder of the Century article contains little not already known about Poe and still less about his relations with Mrs. Whitman. Before Professor Harrison, or anyone else, compiles any more “romances” about Poe he had better wait until the revised and enlarged versions of my “Life of Edgar Allan appears, when there will be authentic material to rely on. My copyists have had to trust pretty largely to my “imperfect version” in the past, and when they have departed from it generally found pitfalls. I have sought my information from more than one source, and these industrious “muckrakers’” will find, although they work under the Century's editorial agis, that if they publish “romances” founded solely upon matter — scraped from the manuscripts of Mrs. Whitman, or other prejudiced person, they will wish any they had continued to “reprint” Mr. Ingram's statements, although “garbled,” which means, according to Dr. Johnson, “to separate the good from the bad.”

JOHN H. INGRAM.

London, January 1, 1909.