Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 076: Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram, Nov. 30 and Dec. 4, 1874,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 231-233 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 231, continued:]

76. Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram. Item 186

My dear Mr. Ingram,

Since the mailing of my last letter (which I had not time even to direct to you, having hastily written the last lines & entrusted it to a friend to direct & forward), I have been “in a sea of troubles.” My sister's state of mind has been so restless, so excitable, & so exigent that I have been utterly absorbed & engrossed by it. Yet, singularly enough, as often happens when great demands are made upon our powers of endurance, my strength & health have improved under this season of trial. I told you in my last letter that I had received your beautiful book & the notice in the Scotsman, which I greatly liked. Mr. Harris, who read the notice, thought it very ably & judiciously written. My sister too was very much pleased with it, as with the portion of your “Memoir” which she has read. She says it presents Poe's character in a very interesting light. Her opinions & judgments, when in a healthy & normal state of mind, are always just & valuable, but she is subject to exaggerated & causeless antipathies, expecially in her feelings & moods about Poe. Do not allude to anything I may have said on this subject or on the subject of her health, or rather her mental moods. You are mistaken in thinking that she, too, suffered from the poison of the ivy.

On Friday the 27th I received your letter of Nov. loth containing some noticeable words from the Echo. You speak of having sent two copies of the book. I have received but one. Were they sent at the same time? You also speak of having sent me, through Mr. Davidson, some copies of the engraved photograph. I have not yet received them, nor have I heard from Mr. Davidson for a long time. I shall try to write to him tomorrow, if things go well with me at home. On Saturday I received a copy of the Home Journal of November 18, containing a notice of your book, brief but appreciative, introductory to the [page 232:] quotation of your Preface, which was given in full, I think. The paper was mailed to me from the St. James Hotel, New York, by my friend G. Lyman Dwight, who, with his wife, sailed from that city for Nassau on the 27th. He will spend the winter there for his health, which has been rapidly failing for the last two months.

I dined with Mr. & Mrs. Harris on the 27th, in company with Hon. John R. Bartlett, a brother-in-law of Senator Anthony, who feels greatly interested in your literary work & regrets that your defence of Poe cannot be sold in the United States, in connection with the edition which you are bringing out.(1) Mr. Bartlett knew Poe in New York. They lived in the same street during some portion of Poe's residence in the city. Mr. Bartlett was then a partner in the firm of Bartlett & WeIlford, booksellers & publishers. Poe was often in their bookstore, & (as Mr. Bartlett tells me) held long conversations on literary subjects with Wellford, with whom he was on terms of familiar intercourse. Mrs. Osgood was an intimate friend of the Bartletts, & Poe often visited them while she was staying with them. Mr. Bartlett has never seen him inspired by any more dangerous stimulant than strong coffee, of which he was very fond & of which [he] drank freely. MacIntosh says that the measure of a man's brain is the amount of coffee he can drink with impunity.

I was prevented, my dear Mr. Ingram, from sending the lines written on the 30th of November by unavoidable delays & interruptions. To return to your letter of Nov. 10. You say you long, yet fear, to hear my verdict about the book. You have no cause to fear anyone's verdict. You have done what no other, with the present known resources for a reliable “Memoir” of Poe's life, could or would have done. I say this deliberately & with a profound conviction of its truth. You have gathered together and carefully collated every, at present, available fragment of evidence which could serve to free his memory from the unmerited reproach which has rested on it. Doubtless the mystery which enshrouds his life will never be wholly removed. It would hardly be in keeping with the mystery of his rare & complex nature that it should be. But, so far as may be, you have placed him before the world as he is. Your story of Poe's life is told not in the spirit of passionate partisanship, but of a generous & appreciative sympathy, tenderly regardful of the wrongs & sorrows sustained by the great genius whose creations have electrified & enthralled so many hearts.

I see that you have changed the date of Poe's birth to Jan. 19. This accords with what he told me as to the day of the month & the month itself. He never told me the year. Perhaps he did not himself know. [page 233:]

I hope that a notice of your book will soon appear in the Providence Journal. I shall send you copies.

Mr. Harris, in a somewhat hasty reading of your “Memoir,” which I lent him for an evening (he is to have it again), seemed to think with the writer of the notice in the Echo that there was perhaps a little too much space given to an elucidation of Griswold's perfidies. I do not agree with him, since no new & true estimate of Poe's character can be established until this false foundation be effectually undermined. Again, Mr. H[arris], as a book collector, objected to the statement that Poe had mistaken the name of Mrs. Lewis in the sonnet inscribed to her. He, having, as he said, in his possession an edition of her poems published under that name. But, probably, very few of your readers will have seen this edition.

Mr. Harris was under the impression that two copies of Pinckney's poems were in his possession, and told me that if it proved so, that you should have one of them. But as yet he has been unable to find the duplicate copy. He will soon send you the copy of Poe's poems of which I told you. You ask if I can send you the portion of Eugene Benson's article which was republished in a New York paper & which you sent to me. I though I returned it to you when I copied for you a portion of my copy in the Galaxy. But I will soon send you my copy, & then you can have it all together.

With so many things unsaid which I most wished to say, I must wait a few days longer to say them, & now, good night.

I have not written one word to dear Rose since I received the enclosed letter. I hope I commit no deadly breach of trust in sending you her letter. I want you to know how well she likes you. Tell her I love her & will write soon, but don’t tell her I sent you her letter. You may send me back the part about yourself some day & destroy the rest.

 

1. John Russell Bartlett (1805-1886) was a distinguished Rhode Island author, bibliographer, and state official.