Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 044: Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram, Apr. 24, 1874,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 129-131 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 129, continued:]

44. Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram. Item 147

My dear Mr. Ingram,

Your strangely interesting letter of March 31 has only reached me today, though your letters of April 2 & April 7 were received three & four days ago.

This will explain to you why I feared that a letter might have been lost.

What you tell me of the mournful heritage of your house filled me with unutterable awe & sorrow. There is, then, a closer bond of sympathy between us than I had yet dreamed. How sad & strange it all seems. My own life has been filled with constant anxiety by the fluctuating mental moods of one nearest & dearest to me — one gifted with noble intellectual powers & admirable moral qualities, but warped through & through by a naturally haughty and dominant temper which from early years could brook no constraint & no opposition. This hereditary temper once, under circumstances of unusual excitement, developed into acute mania, which yielded, after a few weeks of retirement & hospital treatment, to an accustomed state [page 130:] of health. But the constitutional temperament still remains, often compelling me to either lead a life of comparative seclusion, or obstructing & complicating all my social relations. It has been the mission of my life to harmonize & soothe this haughty & perverse. spirit, united, as it is, with so much that is exceptionally original, witty, sagacious, & brilliant — nor this alone, but so much that is intrinsically good, sincere, & generous. It is this blending of good & perverse qualities that has made my life so difficult. The fear of all fears, to me, has been that this noble nature might become permanently overthrown by some unlooked-for disturbance of its ever treacherous serenity.(1) But, let us clasp hands in tenderest sympathy over these abysms of sorrow & trust that death will leave on the loved ones, so afflicted on earth, “only the beautiful.” Do not yield to depression — do not feel that your spirit can ever be alone.

I cannot write another word today. I had intended to have sketched for you the progress of my story, “left half told,” that you might see how rudely such chroniclers as Allibone, et. al. have profaned it by their touch — but not today.

I have had another letter from O’Connor, who says he was “intensely interested in your paper in the Mirror.” I did not tell him that you were thinking of getting out a new edition of the works. I send you some of the pages of his letter. You need not return them. I think he will write to you. I copied for him what you said of Stoddard & what you said of Swinburne & part of Swinburne's note to you.

O’Connor has great genius, but not a very marketable kind of genius. He is eccentric & original & intense — & has no enterprise, & though he has had some fine opportunities of distinguishing himself in journalism, offered him by leading New York papers, he cannot put his Pegasus into harness, & so lives on a salary & slaves for daily bread. But good night & good morrow, & heartfelt wishes for your best welfare.

You ask if I have noticed the discrepancy in the facsimile of the last verse of “Annabel Lee” to the usual line? I believe it is stated that Poe made two versions of that line. I have seen something in print about it, but I have forgotten where & when.

I do not know whose name is intended in the “two foreign, soft, disyllables.” I have never heard any suggestion on the subject.

You ask who is M.L.S.? I have asked you the same question in a recent letter. Mr. Eveleth, from whom I had a letter last week, says Mrs. Shelton's name was Sarah. I had before supposed the lines might have been addressed to her. I do not think Mrs. Stanard had a daughter Mary, but I may be mistaken. [page 131:]

I will try to find out in what number of Harper's Monthly I saw an engraving of the University of Virginia. It was since the number containing Stoddard's article, I am quite sure. I think it must have been in the winter of ‘72-3.

About “Landor's Cottage” I am anxious to know when & where the paper first appeared. Because the last time Poe was in Providence, one day in praising the simple but effective arrangement of some articles of furniture in the room where we were sitting, he said, “I intend, Helen, to write a pendant to ‘The Domain of Arnheim,’ in which I shall speak of beautiful effects attainable by inexpensive means.”

When I saw the article “Landor's Cottage” in the collection published after his death, I noticed that he had described the exact pattern of the paper on the room where we sat together.

Nobody has been able to tell me when & where this article was first published. I long to know.(2)

Oh! that I could have seen your “Mortmere”! What a suggestive name for such a story.

 

1. The person here referred to was Mrs. Whitman's sister, Susan Anna Power, born Feb. 1, 1813, ten years after Sarah Helen.

2. “Landor's Cottage” was first published in the Flag of Our Union, June 9, 1849. This weekly family newspaper had been established in 1846 by Frederick Gleason and Martin Murray Ballou; by 1850 its circulation was 100,000; it was merged in 1871 with the American Union. All files of the Flag were thought to be destroyed in a fire in 1872 or 1873, but in 1909 Professor Killis Campbell of the University of Texas discovered a complete set for 1849 in the Library of Congress.