Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 009: Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram, Feb. 19, 1874,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 31-34 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 31, continued:]

9. Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram. Item 122

My dear Mr. Ingram,

I mailed you on the 17th a letter & some printed papers to go by the steamer that left New York on the 18th.

I wrote hurriedly & while suffering from intense neuralgic pain in my eyes. The printed matter consisted simply of a page copied from Poe's article on autographs — where printed, I have forgotten, & of some pages from Russell's Mag. sent me, years ago, by Mr. Davidson, containing versions of some of the earlier poems. If I were in your place, I should omit in copying the earlier version of “Lenore” all but the three verses which I have indicated. Those erased by a blue pencil mark have some weak lines in them & I think could hardly do justice to him. It is my earnest wish that you print only these 3, in case you wish to reproduce them. The other poem, “The Valley of Nis,” I think might be printed in full. Do not think, however, that I wish to dictate to you in this matter, only earnestly to suggest. You asked me about my quotation of a passage from “Marginalia,” which you say you do not find. A part of the passage quoted is from some comments in “Marginalia” on Undine in the Redfield edition, & a part from one of the stories. I have been looking for it in such of the stories as “Eleonora,” “Morella,” “Berenice,” “Ligeia,” etc. As yet I have not found it, but if I have time & my eyes are not too tired, I will look again before I close my letter. I know it is there. [page 32:]

In quoting the passage from Poe's letter (the one I sent you), I added another from another letter, without separating them by separate quotation marks. It may interest you to know that on a flyleaf of one of the vols. of the Broadway Journal Poe marked in pencil, as among his favourite compositions, “Ligeia,” “Valdemar,” “Tell-Tale Heart,” “Ragged Mountains,” “Domain of Arnheim,” “Morella.”

I will send you these vols. if you wish, but then you would have to send them back, & I am afraid it would not compensate you for the trouble. If I die soon, very soon, as I often think I may, I will certainly order them sent to you. I have access to all the vols. of the Southern Literary Messenger & almost all the English & American reviews & periodicals. If you tell me of anything in any of these, I could perhaps have the articles or facts copied for you. The Providence Athenaeum & the University Library have very extensive collections. Graham's, I have not yet been able to obtain. Have I not seen your signature to an article on poetry or fiction, recently, in one of the English monthlies? I recollect an article which seemed to me original & striking & a name with which I was unacquainted, which as I vaguely recall it now seems like yours.

About disposing of the advance sheets of the article in Temple Bar & at the same time to keep your secret — it seems to me that it would be very difficult. The Atlantic loses no opportunity to disparage Poe's genius. I could apply to Harper's, through Geo. Wm. Curtis, but he is not the editor, though he writes what intellectual people regard as the best part of Harper's,” “The Easy Chair.”(1) Old & New is very uncertain as to the time of it appearance, & still more as to the pay.(2) There is not a person in Providence to whom I could look for aid. Though called the wealthiest city of its size in the Union, it has no magazine or other literary periodical. If you had named the Tribune as a medium, perhaps I might have disposed of the article to them. Mr. Whitelaw Reid wrote to me three years ago to request me to furnish an article for the Tribune on a given subject, saying that Mr. Greeley had told him that he “knew of nobody who could do it so well.” John Hay, one of the editors, was a correspondent of mine & a warm admirer of Poe. But I do not know that it would suit your views to offer it to them. I did not write the article requested, having been absent from home & very much out of health at the time. Since then I have had no communication with them. I earnestly wish to aid you in this, but feel very incompetent to act in the matter.

You asked for my poems. I send the volume noticed in Duyckinck. I have marked for you in the index the poems which specially refer to Poe. I have marked, too, some of the others which I specially like, with a blue pencil. Those which relate to E.A.P., I have marked with a red pencil. All of these were written after his death, with the exception of [page 33:] “A Night in August,” “Arcturus written in October,” & “Our Island of Dreams,” The four verses of this poem marked with a red pencil were published before his death under the title of “Stanzas for Music.” I will tell you the history of this poem by & by. It, undoubtedly, suggested the poem of “Annabel Lee,” although I am well assured that the author of the so-called “Original Memoir” had no authority for saying that the poem was “addressed” to me. This “Memoir” was published by Redfield in 1858 as a preface to the large illustrated edition of the poems, afterwards brought out in a small volume of Blue & Gold.(3)

With the exception of these three poems & a few verses of “The Raven,” written at the request of Miss Anne C. Lynch for a valentine party given to the literati of New York in the winter of 1848, the poems in relation to him were all written since his death.

“Resurgemus” was first published in a volume published as a Memorial to Mrs. Osgood in 1850 (I think).(4) The volume was reviewed by Mr. E. P. Whipple, who then furnished the literary notices for Graham's.(5) The poem then, I think, had no other title than a quotation from the angel Israfel. The critic speaks of it as you will see in an extract on the printed slip enclosed from the Providence Journal.

I will indicate with a red pencil the lines in “The Raven” which appeared in the anonymous valentine, which he refers to in a letter which you shall see hereafter. The volume of poems which I shall try to mail tonight shall be supplemented by another one in a binding, by another mail.

Mr. Geo. Ripley, who wrote the Tribune notice inclosed in the book, is a critic of high authority, as you perhaps know.(6) Do not think me egotistic, dear Mr. Ingram, in telling you these things. Among the poems published since the volume was published, I like above all others “Proserpina to Pluto,” “The Venus of Milo,” “A Pansy from the Grave of Keats,” and “Our Last Walk.” I will send you more of them another time. Remember that I am to send you a better copy of the poems soon. My friends think that I should prepare, before it is too late, a volume containing the later poems. I will copy for you what Poe said of the poems in a lecture delivered at Lowell in the summer of 1848, on the poetesses of America. It is very high praise, but it was left out from Griswold's copy of that lecture, & I imagine not without Poe's consent. He was angry with me at the time. I had not answered a letter which he wrote to me after our separation. I will tell you about it another time. I inclose a notice of Edgar Poe & His Critics from the Yorkville Enquirer, by Mr. Davidson. Keep it as long as you please (till I ask for it), but don’t destroy it.

I think I shall be able to send you some photographs of Poe next time. The artist told me he would have them ready for me by the middle of next week. [page 34:]

I send copies of “Sleeping Beauty” & “Cinderella,” revised for preservation & private circulation, preparatory to an illustrated copy at a convenient season. My sister has had proposals from a publisher who wished to purchase the copyright, but not being satisfied with the style of the illustrations contemplated by him, she declined.

I have so many things to say, but if I would take advantage of the mail, I must close at once.

With sincerest sympathy & regard,

I am not sure that I have sent “The Pansy from the Grave of Keats.” If not, I will send it next time.

I want you to remark what Curtis says of the sonnets in the page from Putnam's Magazine, & have patience with all my “egoism.” I want you to know me.

 

1. George William Curtis (1824-1892) was a member of the Brook Farm Community in 1842-43, chancellor of New York State University, as well as being at various times a member of the editorial staffs of the New York Tribune and Harper's Weekly Magazine.

2. Old & New began publication in 1870 under Edward Everett Hale's editorship, but it was never successful, and in 1875 it merged with Scribner's Monthly.

3. The Poetical Works of Edgar A. Poe, with Original Memoir (New York: J. S. Redfield, 1858). Illustrated by F. R. Pickersgill, John Tenniel, Birket Foster, Felix Darley, Jasper Cropsey, P. Dugan, Percival Skelton, and A. M. Madot. The Blue and Gold edition was brought out in 1859.

4. See p. 12, n. 9.

5. Edwin Percy Whipple (1819-1886) was an author and lecturer, as well as an important critic.

6. George Ripley (1802-1880) was a Harvard mathematics professor, Unitarian minister, editor, reformer, and critic. He founded the Brook Farm Community and its transcendental magazine, the Dial.