Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 059: John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman, July 6 and July 7, 1874,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 184-188 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 184, continued:]

59. John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman

My dear Mrs. Whitman,

I have received your short pencil note [June 16] which is some comfort, although I do miss your nice long letters which you were so regular with & which always made a sunshine in the shadiest place.

You will have received my letter [June 15] announcing that the worst of my illness was over & that I was thinking of leaving town. I left for the Isle of Wight — our “Garden Isle” — and returned a few days since, doubtless better in health, although I was very ill whilst away. Had a fainting fit in the night & must have been in a swoon for some long time. I have returned to my official duties but still feel weak and almost aimless. This latter feeling will probably soon wear off, but it unnerves me & renders me less fitted to complete my allotted tasks.

I think I told you in my last that I was a few days late with my article for the New Quarterly & that the MS. was returned me, as I had stipulated for the appearance of the said article not later than July. I thought — I still think — the editor behaved shabbily, but he has written me a long apology.

Blacks will publish the first vol. of Poe's Works on the 1st of October, but have it all printed & write to me for the “Memoir” to complete the volume. I am not, I feel, competent at the present moment to write the work as it should be written, but not to delay, I have cut up & added to the life I wrote for the Quarterly, & so hope to get something done at once. This “Memoir” will embody all the information I have received from you & something more & will thoroughly refute the Griswold fabric. I shall, however, still persevere in collecting material for another life, & perhaps, in a year or so, if alive, shall be able to bring out another & a separate life, with new letters, &c. This entre nous for the present. My life to the world is that prefixed to Black's edition.

Mr. Gill has at last written to say that my letter had only just reached him, having been mislaid by his secretary. He does not give Mr. [page 185:] Clarke's address but says he (Mr. C[arke] ) cannot give any information not contained in the collection which Mr. Gill has purchased & will sell if I much wish to buy it. If not, Mr. Gill will write a life, &c., &c. Now you know that I do much desire any information (reliable), but I feel that Mr. Gill is not acting honestly & candidly & that now, having made all the use he is able to of Mr. Clarke's collection wishes to make me pay for it. I am now writing to tell him that my life is written, but that I am still prepared to purchase anything of real interest for the chance of a future edition, but I do not much care to trust to Mr. G[ill] & think that I shall ask Mr. Davidson to intervene, if I get a satisfactory reply.

I have so much to say but must defer continuation until tomorrow.

I have got the whole of “Autography” (thro’ Mr. Davidson) in Graham's, so send you two papers of it — one you sent me. I also enclose you a cutting from a paper — a temperance publication — re. E. A. Poe. I wrote this letter in reply to one of the usual lives founded on Griswold's story. It was written whilst unwell & is not much, but it contradicts some of the slanders, & lets the temperance folk know that there is a different account of Poe extant. [Lamons?] was doubtless an American.

I resume, but have so much to say that I feel all my thoughts crowded into a chaotic mass. First, Mrs. Lewis, whom I am to visit this evening, has promised me a copy or two of the portrait, so you will be able to get a copy of that. I am sorry I did not know of it in time for the collection, but the engraver has made a very good portrait, &, I fancy, very like, from the “Ultima dim Thule” one, as you will see some of these days. Mrs. Lewis, I fear cannot afford much information — nothing definite.

Did you get the Baudelaire Essais & the Temple Bar article safely? In my next, I shall probably be enabled to return Mr. Latto's letter & your own. The printer has facsimiled the whole of Mr. Pabodie's letter in error, so I shall publish it, as well as the paragraph from yours.

I have not been able to do anything further with Miss Poe's matter, but must now set to work at once. She has written again to me, as has also the Provost of Peabody Institute re. Poe's letters to Mr. Kennedy.(1) Latter says that Neilson Poe can give me information & that he has written, but I’ve not received any letter & fancy that he is only trying to stifle inquiry, but I am just going to write to him. Also to a Mr. Valentine, a young sculptor, a cousin of the first Mrs. Allan.(2) I believe we shall yet rake up something & I shall not relax my efforts.

Mr. Davidson has been very kind, & I am just going to write to him. He obtained 2 vols. of Graham's for me — also the no. containing [page 186:] Graham's letter, so I shall return your MS. copy, as you may like to have it by you.

I shall be glad to hear what is said in the Every Saturday on “Poe's Poems.” But all this time I have been overlooking the fact that you have been ill. I hope it is have been. I shall be so glad to hear of your recovery. You cannot possibly credit how eagerly I look for your letters & what an invigorating influence they seen to have upon me. I cannot help feeling that you must be good & do not doubt but that your influence has been much wider and greater with many than you can imagine or ever know. I do not speak from any foolish wish to flatter, but from my heart what I feel, so, whenever not too weary, write to me, and believe that when you do you are doing good to one wayward & tempest-tost mortal — but write — only write the veriest commonplaces — questions & answers — or what you will — all will be acceptable.

I am scribbling this amid official din, & not having your letters here, scarcely know what I have to ask about, or answer. My edition of Poe, in 4 vols., will be very complete. The “Autography” — omitting one or two names, such as Griswold's, Mrs. Ellet's, &c. This latter, by the way, I hear is very intimate with a literary lady here whose receptions I have attended. This said lady is “at home” every Monday, so I shall drop in & hear what she has to say re. Mrs. E[llet]. I have also recovered a paper on “Cryptology,” some more “Marginalia,” & reviews & an article styled “Pinakidia,” which is an early series of “Marginalia.” I have also reprinted the omitted portion of “The Oval Portrait.” I thought that I knew all Poe's works by heart, but really I get quite excited at reading the proofs & forgetting my task of correction, go reading away till I am pulled up by a sudden remembrance. Arthur Gordon Pym I have not a duplicate copy of, & when I get to the end of my proof I feel quite disappointed at not being able to continue its exciting perusal. I keep thinking that it must be real — true — it affects me far more powerfully than when I first read it. When I sent the copy to the publisher, they wrote to say that it would be well to insert a note in the vol. saying what portion of the narrative was by Poe and what portion was really written by Mr. A. G. Pym!! They were deceived by Poe's wonderful powers — I was quite pleased at this, because Blacks are well-educated, talented men. They write me that Professor Nichols of Glasgow, the author of an article on “American literature” in the forthcoming edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica — a magnificent & truly national work — speaks very highly of “A. G. Pym.”(3)

Griswold's critique will have little avail now-a-days. A few years, and I hope & trust Griswold & his “Memoir” will be consigned to oblivion. Poe's name will gradually arise great & grand & purified from all the gross stains the implacable malice of Griswold has cast upon it. [page 187:] It is a delight to me to feel that I shall have assisted in the goodly task, but it is to you — you, more than any other human being, that this result will be due.

In making out my pages on Poe's ancestry & going over various heraldic & genealogical works, I could not clearly trace the connection between the Poes & the La Poers. The latter & the Powers is clear, but not the Poes. Can you afford any light? Two branches of the Poës are still landholders in Killarny, but though favoured with genealogical trees do not claim relationship with the Poers, or the Powers.

I much fear that my “Memoir” of Poe will contain very little unknown to you, but that you must forgive — to the British, probably to the Americans — the facts will be new — beyond my papers, such as you know of — nothing has been demonstrated against Griswold here, & he has been accepted as gospel truth.

I know nothing, as yet, of “Landor's Cottage.” Were I only in America I am certain that I could recover, not only much of biographical interest, but even much valuable of Poe's writings now lost. What a pity that I cannot rescue these things. Every year the task will be more difficult.

Mr. Davidson is very kind, but I dare say tires, & once or twice has overlooked most singularly & unaccountably — things of value.

Well! I think I must wind up this scrawl. When my “Memoir” is really printed I shall he able, ’tis to be hoped — to write you something more connected & reasonable. My illness threw me out so fearfully that I told them at home that I thought Griswold's ghost must have been racking my bones to stop the exposure of his infamies. I shall be too strong for him yet!

There! Daily hoping to hear from you, I remain, believe me, my very dear & much prized friend, ever most faithfully yours,

 

1. Nathaniel Holmes Morison (1815-1890), provost of Peabody Institute, Baltimore, was a friend and close associate of Neilson Poe. He informed Ingram in his first letter, June 6, 1874, that Poe's letters to John P. Kennedy would come to the Institute on Mrs. Kennedy's death. Later, Morison served Ingram well, and Poe biography, by copying many letters from Mrs. Clemm to Neilson Poe, letters that Neilson was apparently too indolent to copy himself. This valuable correspondence from Morison continued to reach Ingram until 1880, and it is worth remarking that at no time did Ingram ever attempt to reprimand or quarrel with this particular contributor to the building of Poe biography.

2. Edward Virginius Valentine (1838-1930) proved to be one of Ingram's staunchest helpers in his efforts to build Poe's biography. A native of Richmond, he was a friend of the second Mrs. John Allan and an important sculptor. Two of his best known works are the recumbent marble figure of Gen. Robert E. Lee in the Memorial Chapel at Washington and Lee University, Lexington, and the bronze figure of Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson at Virginia Military Institute. [page 188:]

3. This possibly refers to Professor John Gough Nichols (1806-1873), at one time editor of the London Gentleman's Magazine.