Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 074: Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram, Nov. 24, 1874,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 226-227 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 226, continued:]

74. Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram. Item 182

My dear Mr. Ingram,

Since I wrote you on the 13th to acknowledge the receipt of your beautiful book, I have received the copy of The Scotsman which you sent me, & think its notice in many respects admirably just & candid, yet it is not a little singular that while O’Connor regarded your papers in the Mirror as too lenient toward Griswold, the wary “Scotsman” thinks you too passionate in your defense of Poe! I do not agree with him. I think the general tone & temper of your “Memoir” is not less ingenious & impartial than it is brave & chivalrous. Strange that after the lapse of 25 years a young Englishman should be the first to present to the world an earnest protest & an effectual refutation of many of the disgraceful charges with which the unfortunate poet's memory has been relentlessly stained & clouded!

I have a few criticisms to make & a few changes to suggest, in case the “Memoir” should be reprinted. They are not very important, however. I dare say I am responsible for the mistake — if it is a mistake — about the burning of Davidson's papers mentioned in the Preface. It was at the burning of Columbia, & not the “Siege of Charleston,” that the papers were destroyed, as I think, unless he told you that it was Charleston.

Pabodie was not “eminent” as a lawyer. He studied law, had a law [page 227:] office, & was a justice of the peace for several years, but he had an utter aversion to business, &, not being dependent on the profession for a support, soon abandoned it. He was a fine belles lettres critic, & has written a few very fine poems. Some of his patriotic & occasional odes have been quoted as among the noblest in our American literature. He was rather superfine in dress and manners, witty & sarcastic in conversation, very sensitive to the world's praise & blame, & very indolent. This will not raise an objection to your characterization of him in any other place than Providence.

I object to the “beautiful young widow” & to the “fierce flame,” etc. I suppose Mrs. Moulton's notice of one of my poems in her “Literary Notes” for the Tribune (a notice in which she referred to my book about Poe) is responsible for that expression, n’est ce pas?(1)

Singularly enough, Mrs. Moulton's reference to this book came out almost simultaneously with Stoddard's article about Poe in Harper's Magazine for Sept. 1872. I wrote to her to ask her if she knew of Stoddard's article when she spoke of my book in the Tribune. She replied that she did not but was strongly moved to speak of it as she did, “thinking it but just to me that the fact should be recognized”! I think it was “a supernatural soliciting” that moved her to do it.

I am glad that you did not speak of Stoddard in your “Memoir.” It was better than any condemnation.

I am writing under great trials & difficulties from within & without. My sister's health alarms me. She has been for some weeks nervous & restless beyond anything I have seen in her for years. Do not speak of this in writing to me. I must close abruptly.

May heaven bless & guide you. Affectionately & gratefully,

 

1. This was Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton (1835-1908), novelist, poet, and journalist, who wrote literary reviews and notices for the New York Tribune from 1870 to 1876. After Mrs. Whitman's death, Mrs. Moulton wrote a long biographical-critical article about her and her work that was published in the London Athenaeum, Dec. 21, 1878.