Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 017: Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram, Mar. 4, 1874,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 59-60 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 59, continued:]

17. Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram. Item 127

Dear Mr. Ingram,

In writing to you yesterday I neglected among other things to answer your question about my quotations from “Marginalia.”

You say you do not find the passages cited. Perhaps you allude to something I said on the 55th page [of Edgar Poe and His Critics] about a thought in his notice of Undine in note CVI of “Marginalia.” See his allusion to Fouqué's “personal opinions on the subject of second marriages,” — to his assumed belief that “the mere death of a beloved wife does not imply a separation so final or so complete as to justify an union with another.” Note these expressions & the quotation from Fouque which follows: “The fisherman had loved Undine with exceeding tenderness & it was a doubtful conclusion to his mind that the mere disappearance of his beloved child could be properly viewed as her death.”

I find no other allusion to the “Marginalia,” unless it be one at the foot of page 70, beginning, “I regard these visions, even as they arise,” etc., — which you will find in note XVI.

It has been the fashion of late with some of our New England magazines & weekly periodicals to undervalue Poe's critical ability, &, doubtless, his judgments were at times greatly influenced by personal feeling, yet in looking over his notes on books & authors in the “Marginalia” yesterday (not having recurred to them before for many years) I was astonished to perceive in contrast to the usual falsetto blandishments & personal asperities of contemporary criticism, how genuine, racy, & pertinent were all his critical annotations.

I enclose the Ultima Thule photograph.*

In haste,

* This picture is very valuable — Mr. Coleman himself took the negative from the original daguerre, which is lost. He has given away [page 60:] but one copy — years ago, before the art of bringing out the negative had attained its present perfection — & has produced these copies expressly for me. The one I sent you before was lithographed from the original daguerre & the copy I sent you was from the lithograph taken in 1857 or 1858.

You can send back one of the portraits marked on the back with a pencilled cross — keeping the one you like best. Have you copies of the Broadway Journal in the library? If so & there is any copy which you wish particularly to see, I will tear it out & send it, or if the volumes themselves are very important, let me know & I will send them.