Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 078: John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman, Dec. 16, 1874,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 236-238 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 236:]

78. John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman

My dear Mrs. Whitman,

I have to acknowledge your dear letters of the 24th Ulto. & of the 30th, & will reply firstly to the various items thereof.(1) Vide Scotsman critique — he is not the only one who deems me to have been dispassionate. See Daily Review & Echo. Standard thinks it was not necessary for Mr. Ingram to criticise Poe's foibles! But all — great & small — speak well of Poe & of his biographer. I send you Gilfillan's wonderful critique, part II. You’ll see he has not omitted you.

As regards your remarks & notes on my “Memoir” — do please continue them & “pitch into me” about something or I shall think you are not pleased. There must be so much you could suggest for revision, omission, or addition. I’ll look up place of burning of Mr. Davidson's library. I fancied he said “Charleston.” Pabodie's designation shall be amended. The “beautiful young widow” and the “fierce flame” shall be revised — but Mrs. Moulton is innocent thereof. I alone am guilty. Stoddard I studiously avoided mention of. I am armed cap-a-pie for him.

Mrs. Gove Nichols expects to be in town soon & will tell me much. She thinks Mrs. Clemm was Poe's guardian angel. At her advice I have written to Mrs. Oakes Smith & “M.L.S” now Mrs. Houghton.

The pictures have not yet gone off. I cannot learn how best to send & thought of sending copy of Mrs. Lewis's daguerreotype with it but, through no fault of hers, that has been delayed. Perhaps both portraits can go together in a few days.

I wish Mr. Harris had lent me his book a fortnight ago — Poe's poems. H. Curwen, who edited Hotten's E. Poe, has just published 2 vols. of biographical sketches, viz. Henri Munger, “Novalis,” Petöfi, Balzac, Chénier, & Poe — called Song & Sorrow — he has sent me copy for review. He repeats most of Griswold's slanders saying, in preface:

I hope to review the books for the Academy.(2) There is nothing new in Curwen's account of Poe but two poems from the 1829 edition — “To ———” and “Spirits of the Dead.” If I had Mr. Harris's book I could see if they were therein.

Widdleton, copyright publisher of Poe, has just published Poe's Poems — new edition with poems not in former editions — also a “New Life” by R. H. Stoddard. This, says Davidson, is a recast of the Harper's Monthly Life. I have asked Davidson to get me a copy of the poems instanter!(3) They are doubtless the juvenile verses. Are we not unearthing the past! Widdleton, entre [page cut]

[On verso:] therefore, Griswold does intentionally occupy much space on my canvas. But my next life of Poe shall rectify this.

Poe did mistake the name of Mrs. Lewis. She shewed me his letter — vide the “Memoir” — & explained how it was so many thought her name “Sarah A.” ’Twas a method of signing “Estella A.” like “S —— A.” But I should much like (for a grave reason) to know the book Mr. Harris saw “S. A. Lewis” appended to.

[Page cut] this digression, unexpectedly drawn forth for the first time in my life, in the vague hope of that sympathy which cannot be given, I will reclose the adamantine clasps upon that cavity supposed to contain that portion of our anatomy called “the heart,” and return to the unsentimental, or rather the sentimental.

Mr. Morison of Baltimore has been stirring up Neilson Poe on my behalf & I give you the extraction of his communication. He says that N. Poe is very indolent, hence his silence to me & to the world. N.P. married Virginia Clemm's half sister! Mr. Morison's chief information is from two long letters of Mrs. Clemm to N. Poe in 1860. In one she says, “Griswold offered $500 for a certain literary lady's correspondence with Eddie,” & fearing poverty might induce her to sell it, she destroyed it! Who was the literary lady? Surely not Mrs. Osgood. Neilson Poe, I think, will send me his recollections of Edgar, of whom he states, “a single glass of wine would set his brain on fire & that his only safety was in total abstinence.” Mrs. Clemm's first letter says, “Eddie was born in Boston, Mass. on the 19th Jany. 1811. {should be 1809? This is also confirmed by other evidence.} When he was 5 weeks old he was taken to Baltimore by his parents & remained there for 6 months.” Then to Richmond, Va. where his mother died when Eddie was 2 years old. Then adopted by Mr. Allan & put to Academy at Richmond till he was 7. Mr. & Mrs. A[llan] brought him to England & lived in Russell Square. Eddie went to Dr. Bransby's, but every Friday till Monday spent with his adopted parents! Home to America when only 14 — University — West Point. Mrs. C[lemm] often trips, however, as you know. She declares that Poe left W. Point voluntarily, but seems to confuse it with Charlottesville. He never [page 238:] went to Greece or Russia, (but his brother Wm. did to Russia, on dit), and Mrs. C[lemm] said that Edgar laughed at the story but did not care to contradict it. She then bears most loving testimony to his goodness — in my next in extenso.

Mr. Morison then comments, says Neilson Poe ordered the destroyed monument for Edgar's grave, & not being rich, has not ordered another, but one is going to be erected. Neilson was born in the same year as Edgar.

Second letter, Mrs. C[lemm] repeats how faithful Edgar was to Virginia. Private letters, says Mrs. C[lemm], “I burned as I knew so well Eddie wished” — the literary letters confided to Griswold, “he never would return & I cannot get them from his executors. They were all from the most celebrated men living.” Poe's letters to her she’d given away. The last two of Poe's autographs she gave to Longfellow, “for he is one of my best friends & constantly writes to me. I spent some time at his house in Cambridge.”

In P.S. Mrs. Clemm says to N[eilson] Poe, “Will you get a little book by S. Helen Whitman called E.P. & His C.? She knew him well & contradicts the assertion made by Griswold relative to herself.” Mr. Morrison asserts that Mrs. C[lemm] was very indignant at the story of Poe & the 2nd Mrs. Allan & declared it vilely false. Mrs. Allan lives still in Richmond, Va., & is still bitter against Poe. Virginia was only 14 when first married to Edgar — they were again married when she was 15. Name & place specified — Christ's Church, Baltimore, by Revd. (now Bishop) John Johns. Those are the chief items, but in my next will try to give Mrs. C[lemm's] letters in extenso.

And now — forgive trying your eyes (& your heart? for you feel for me?) & believe me ever yours,

P.S. Open this just to wish you & Miss Power a happy New Year.

 

1. Three-fourths of pages three and four are cut off.

2. Ingram did review Curwen's Sorrow and Song. His review was published in March 1875; it is reprinted here on pages 265-66.

3. W. J. Widdleton, New York, brought out Stoddard's new edition of Poe's poems in 1875, with a notation that the book was printed in Great Britain.