Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 055: John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman, June 15, 1874,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 164-168 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 164, continued:]

55. John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman

My dear Mrs. Whitman,

You cannot credit with what anxiety I have waited for your next letter. I have grown to watch for and prize your communications, apart even from their connection with Edgar Poe, with strange & inexplicable interest — and now — as I had feared — I hear from yours dated the 2nd & just received that you have also been ill. What a singular illness — poisoning by Ivy. I fancy the plant must be more virulent with you than with us, although I must confess it has a most stupifying, enervating &, at the same time, repulsive odour for me. I trust most sincerely that the effects have now worn off with you. As for me, I am almost myself again but my long illness and its consequent idleness have almost unfitted me for writing. I have been daily wishing to write to & hear from you, but could neither do the one thing or get the other. Although I have been able, for some days past, to get out & about, I am still suffering from bodily pains — rheumatic — & I may add mental — for my neglected work has worried me greatly. Tomorrow I leave town for the Isle of Wight for a week or two for change of air. Today I can only just send these few scrawled lines. I have not been able to write to you, from sheer inanity, but your letter has just stirred me up enough to a simple & doubtless incoherent acknowledgment. Oh, that I could have a viva voce interview instead of this dull, sluggish method.

I have not seen Mrs. Lewis since the second interview, although again invited during my illness. Really, with all the will in the world she can give no information. She left Baltimore when quite young, & so many years ago, that she cannot remember anything of its inhabitants, & she says that it was not until about the last year of his life that she had any real intimate knowledge of Poe. She thinks he was superhuman — almost an angel — & said she did not believe anything alleged against him — not even the drunkenness. She had your little book, E.P. & His Critics, on the table at my first visit, but seemed disinclined to allude to it — but I fancy there were notes (pencil) in it. Mrs. Lewis is very eccentric — doubtless much changed since she lived in America, & I fancy, from being, perhaps, without relatives or very near friends in the world, has grown — entre nous — [page 165:] very singular. Her heart is in the right place, however, I feel assured. I dare say I shall be able to get her to let me have the portrait copied & then will send you a copy.

By the way, I have just returned the proofs of the engravings of E. Poe for our life. I think it is very successful & feel that it is like. I shall be proud of the day when I can forward to you the vol. containing it. I am not superstitious — although not quite so sceptical as a former letter led you to imagine — but I do really feel as if I were marked out & certain to write Poe's life — indeed, were I to die this moment, there is a complete life — an abridged one — written for the Quarterly that would serve my purpose. The publishers are getting on so rapidly with Vol. 1 that I must somehow shorten the “Memoir” & let them have it as complete as time will admit of. All of importance yet known will be incorporated. The Quarterly paper will not appear in July. I was behind time through my illness & as it was only an abridgment of the “Memoir” could not appear next October, as the Vol. i is expected out earlier. Editor seems sorry & I am to call on him. You shall hear the story of it another time.

Mr. Davidson has been very kind — sent 2 vols. of Graham's — 1841-2 (2nd & 3rd of Poe's editorship). Am still minus Vol. 1 (that is Vol. 18). Mr. D. also sent the number with Graham's letter & Harper's, with the University article — same as you sent. “Autography” from which I shall omit a few names — and “Cryptology” paper, were in Graham's. “Life in Death,” I saw at once was “The Oval Portrait,” but I shall use the omitted portion.

There is much of Poe's writing still uncollected, I am sure. Much of the “Marginalia,” &c., & I dare say Griswold suppressed much for his own & his customers’ sake. Poe wrote for the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post. His paper on ciphers appeared in Graham's June 1841 & in it he speaks of having written papers on an analagous subject 18 months earlier, in a “weekly paper of this city,” — i.e., Philadelphia. Again of his prospective review of Barnaby Rudge in Sat. E. Post of May 1, 1841 — see Works Vol. 3, p. 474. What has become of the letter of C. Dickens to Poe — see “Philosophy of Composition” — neither young Dickens, or John Forster, know anything of the correspondence. You see there is much still much to learn for a future edition.

The Gentleman's Magazine will throw some light if it ever turns up.

Miss R. Poe cannot, I fancy, do anything. I believe her home is permanent but does not provide food or clothes. My illness has delayed my efforts on her behalf, but Mr. Davidson writes me as if he knew Mr. Powell — not that I shall trust a single shilling to him. Meanwhile I wrote to our Consul at Baltimore. He says, “Mr. Powell has been to see me & will write you in a few days giving you some information, such as you require, also that he could give a great deal if [page 166:] he had the time at his disposal to do so, & that he could put his hand on many letters (never published) of the late E. A. Poe.” Then, speaking of Miss Poe, he repeats the information of Mr. Powell, who seems the ruler of the old lady, adding, “he (Mr. Powell) showed me a letter from her ... I would judge from Miss Poe's letter that she is by no means a person of much intelligence: — penury & hardship may, however, have something to do with this.” Mr. Powell says Miss Poe must not have much money given her at this time, or it would be too much for her reason — this to Mr. Davidson. She has not answered me. He says she has worn one thin dress all the winter to his knowledge & yet tells Mr. D. that he gave her over 60 dollars — see scrap enclosed, sent me by Moncure Conway. Mr. Powell I cannot trust without knowing more of him. I fancy letters, &c. soon shew who may & who may not be trusted.

From her letters I cannot say that I care for Mrs. Clemm — they seemed to me, working upon your feelings for money. I can not say that I feel very admiringly disposed towards her. I must leave much for next & future letters —

Let me remark that I did thoroughly agree with Mr. O’Connor's remarks on Stoddard's paper in the Harper's Monthly — it was so mean & little.

I have always kept your letters sacred, but I read out your judgment on me, from my imperfect portrait, to my mother, only suppressing the too flattering finale, & she said it was admirable — that if you had known me for years, personally, you could not have told my character better. I don’t know that I quite agree. Your picture is so pleasant to me. At home they say, “It looks such a good face & that the eyes must be very fine.”

I see in last week's Mirror declined as unsuitable something styled “Griswold's Punishment.” I wonder what it — this something — is like! I enclose you the only two notices I have of the Temple Bar & Gentleman's articles. They are from two of our best literary papers.

I send you with Baudelaire's notice of Poe, the Temple Bar article. Unfortunately, ’tis published from the first proof & not like the later one you have. I cannot account for this. You will see the errors. They have altered the name of Mrs. Osgood to Mrs. Lewis, at my request. Mrs. O[sgood], I think there is little doubt, was quite under Griswold's control at last, but she could not forget Poe & the last poem of the collection published just before her death was to the adored “Israfel.” Do you know it? What a beautiful handwriting was hers! One collection of her poems in British Museum is a presentation copy to Rufus W. Griswold. I don’t think even Griswold's great hold on the poor woman would have made her false to Poe — doubtless Griswold “cooked up” her reminiscences. [page 167:]

Again referring to Mrs. Clemm, Graham in the 1850 letter states that what money Poe received from him “went directly into the hands of his mother-in-law for family comforts” — and Mrs. Lewis deems that Mrs. Clemm got Poe into disrepute by begging & borrowing & receiving all his earnings & wasting the money — in some things — Mrs. Lewis] says she was very extravagant. I cannot make anything out of this riddle & shall not try. I do not want to misjudge Mrs. C[lemm], or judge her without firmer testimony.

My remarks about my previous letters was not fearing you might repeat, or show anything that were better private, but not knowing into whose hands they might someday pass — but there! I do not think any of the letters we have yet exchanged would injure us at any day of judgment.

I could not understand myself the motive of Mrs. E[llet] in abstracting the letter. It appeared she could not get the money herself, but only prevent Mrs. L[ewis] from getting it: mere petty malice, so far as I could comprehend. Mrs. L[ewis] is not very clear in her rambling chatter. No pinning her into a corner.

I fancy Baudelaire wrote more about Poe than I this day forward by book post, but that is all known in England. I’ll try for the others.

Thanks for the enclosures. By the way, I liked “Proserpine” better than any of the other poems — better than Jean Ingelow's “Persephone.”

Oh! I’ve so much to leave over. I was too hasty with the Shaver Barn extract — lend it to me again some day — it will do for the book of “The Raven” I told you of. All your papers shall be returned when my “Memoir” is in print.

And now goodbye, & get well, — quite well & through all, ever & ever, believe me, my very dear friend, to be yours most faithfully.

[Enclosure: Newspaper clipping from the London Academy, June 6, 1874. Item 577]

In Temple Bar for this month there is an article on Poe, exposing the bad faith of the life by Griswold, which is still treated in England as a trustworthy authority. In the Gentleman's Magazine for May there is an interesting article on an early collection of Poe's poems, printed for private circulation in 1831, when he was a cadet at West Point. There are copious extracts which have both a bibliographical and literary interest.

[Enclosure: Newspaper clipping from the London Examiner, June 6, 1874]

In Temple Bar, there is a valuable paper on Edgar Poe, by Mr. John H. Ingram. Mr. Ingram inpugns [[impugns]] the accuracy of Dr. Griswold's account of [page 168:] the poet, from which the prevailing notions about him are derived, and adduces evidence to prove that when this standard biography was called “the fancy sketch of a jaundiced vision,” nothing more was said than the literal truth. Dr. Griswold is charged with malicious omission, and fabulous insertion; and Mr. Ingram makes it quite clear that, if we are not to modify our notions about Poe's debauchery and irregularities, we must at least cease to credit many of the disreputable anecdotes which Dr. Griswold has accumulated around his name.