Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 060: John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman, July 14 and July 15, 1874,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 188-190 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 188, continued:]

60. John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman

My very dear Friend,

Your welcome letter dated 30 June is to hand safely which, coupled with the fact that the publishers have just returned the autograph letters to me, compel me to write at once.

Urgent matters compelled me to defer my letter till today & now, I am so pressed for time that, while there is much — very much to say — I shall have to postpone the chief portion for a few days.

Firstly, let me say whilst I think of it, that I have spent another evening with Mrs. Lewis but without gaining information re. Poe. She has promised copies of Poe's portrait & is very sorry that I did not have it for the collection, but I think now that I am glad that I used yours — the engraver has made a very good portrait from it, as I believe you will say, something very different to the gross caricatures hitherto known. I asked Mrs. L[ewis] about Mrs. E[llet] again & am told she is known to but not liked by an English literary lady whose receptions I attend, a Miss Kortright, a great friend of the Hawthornes. I may call there next Mondy if feeling well enough, for I am still very queer, although I am engaged out today and Friday to garden parties & am going to try & attend. To return to Mrs. E[llet] — the purloined letter, says Mrs. Lewis, was taken on behalf of Mr. Lewis, in whose pay Mrs. E[llet] is supposed to have been.(1) Mrs. E[llet] is declared by Mrs. L[ewis] to have goaded & worried Griswold to death — if it were so it was, indeed, a just retribution. Mrs. Lewis only knew Poe quite at the end of his life & knows nothing of his history & believes everything told of him fictitious.

I am just now so unnerved & so strange in my head — weary & forgetful — that I do not feel equal to write you a long letter. I will write again soon. Thanks for Providence Journal notice. Every Saturday might have acknowledged same, but does not matter. I would prefer them to have copied Temple Bar paper. I do want to write to Mr. Davidson, &c. My trip, I fancy, did not do me much good. I wish I could forswear literature for a few months. In September I leave town for a month or so & must look forward to that.

Poe's Works progress rapidly. — Vol. 1 is in print all but “Memoir” & the first proof of that came yesterday. I hope to send the rest of MS. about Tuesday next. I have shortened it greatly — it will not be more [page 189:] than 80 pps. When prospectus appears you shall have copy. Vol. 1 is to appear on 1st Oct.

I do trust you are getting better from the poison. Mentally I lean upon you for support & encouragement. Your letters are the “best medicine to a mind diseased” that I know of at present. By the way, do you know that the “serpent of Old Nile” did not die from the bite of an asp? Dear old Sir Thomas Browne exploded that vulgar error two centuries ago.(2)

Thanks for the Providence notice. Providence! omen bonum. I am glad you omitted that nasty & unnecessary word. I will send extracts from the Mirror in my next for Mr. Eveleth & perhaps, some for you. I always thought “The Mystery of Marie Rogêt” was complete, until you sent me Mr. Eveleth's remark. John Neal's letter would be very interesting, but too late for this edition. I thought Neal was dead years ago — he must be very old. I saw J. R. Lowell again styled “Dr.” in the Academy a week or two ago. He is going back to Harvard College in October. That Mr. George Poe is new to me. If alive, I presume no information could be got from him. Let me know directly you get the autograph letters. I will register them, but shall be anxious to hear of their arrival. Thank Mr. Latto for his kind loan of his, even though only lent to you.

And now goodbye for a while, & forever, believe me to be most faithfully yours —

Entre nous — can you recommend any really good tales for an American collection? I do not know any of Neal's, save one poor one. Do you think Simms’ “Martin Faver” is obtainable in America? ’Tis not here. Only first rate & short stories, such as Irving's, Poe's, Hawthorne's. Of course, they cannot be equalled, but authors of minor note, sometimes, write one or more really fine magazine stories. No hurry, but you may think of something. Did you ever write any tale? Au revoir.

Poe made out a strong case against Aldrich & Hood's “Death Bed” piece. A certain Irish writer — I forget his name — has tried to get the credit of Campbell's “Exile of Erin.” “Woodman, Spare that Tree,” is in dispute. You will see some fine lines by Mr. R. Wilde, quoted in 1 or 2 vol. of S.L. Messenger which have been claimed as by “O’Daly” & by [illegible], & so forth ad infinitum. By the way, I did not know of the “MS. Found in a Barn” — was it worth any [sic]? I know all about the spirit poems of Miss Lizzie something-or-the-other.(3) I have written a cruel paper on them — ’tis with the Mirror & will appear some day, I suppose. You shall have everything I write in any way relating to Poe, that is published. [page 190:]

But there! I won’t bother you any more now, only, say that, if you can spare me the time, do kindly send me any extracts, &c. that may be published at your earliest convenience & forgive me for saying so after all your kindness to yours unforgetfully & ever faithfully,

P.S. Someday you shall have better letters from me than the hurried scrawls I now send. I send a blue envelope because I fancy ’tis seen better & becomes better known in the post.

 

1. Sylvanus D. Lewis, lawyer in Brooklyn, N.Y. was divorced from Stella Lewis in 1858. Friendly to Poe, he also helped Mrs. Clemm when Poe's sister, Rosalie, tried to claim Poe's entire “estate.”

2. Sir Thomas Browne (1605-1682) suggested that Cleopatra might have died in another way. See The Works of Sir Thomas Browne, ed. Geoffrey Keynes, 4 vols., Vol. II, Pseudodoxia Epidemica (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1964) pp. 363-64.

3. Miss Lizzie Doten, a medium of sorts, professed to believe that she was on occasions inspired by important poets to deliver their posthumous poems. In a volume called Poems from the Inner Life, published before Dec. 19, 1863 (Boston: Colby & Rich), she published five poems supposedly dictated to her by Edgar Poe; in later editions she added still another. For three of these “spirit poems,” see Items 97 and 561 in the Ingram Poe Collection. As late as 1872 Miss Doten was still delivering publicly her inspired poems.