Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 080: Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram, Jan. 4, 1875,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 242-245 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 242, continued:]

80. Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram. Item 192

My dear Mr. Ingram,

I received the last of your ever welcome letters [Dec. 16, 1874] on the evening of the 2nd of the New Year. Its contents were intensely interesting. The notice of Gilfillan was, in spite of its many errors & exaggerations, eloquently &, in some respects, admirably written. I hope to quote some portions of it for publication.

A note from Mr. Davidson this morning tells me that he has sent you Stoddard's revised “Memoir.” You will see that it is no way improved in spirit. In publishing the extracts which I sent him from the records at Charlottesville, he adds, “But this is a rosecoloured view of the situation”! and proceeds, or rather seeks to neutralize its tints by the introduction of a frivolous conversation reported as having passed between a certain Mr. Gilliet & Mrs. Allan. The “rosecoloured view” has, however, the advantage of documentary evidence, while the story of the “seventeen broad-cloth coats” looks somewhat “murky,” and apparently needs corroboration.(1)

If you review Curwen's Song & Sorrow, I should like to see a copy of your notice.

Mr. Harris, who has been in New York, I saw for the first time since his return on Friday evening — other company being present until a late hour, I had but little chance for conversation. He found a copy of the [18]29 edition of the poems, but did not purchase it. He says he has heard of one other copy in Boston, which he intends soon to look up. In the mean time, he employed a copyist to make out a list of the contents of the book. The list is now before me. The book bears the title of Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, & Minor Poems, by Edgar A. Poe, Baltimore: Hatch & Dunning, 1829. Matchett & Woods, printers. Note by the author: “Tamerlane.” “This poem was printed for publication in Boston in the year 1827, but suppressed through circumstances of a private nature.”

There was an edition printed in 1827. Of this there is other evidence than Poe's assertion, viz., in the catalogue of Kettell.(2) More of this another time. [page 243:]

Mr. Harris thinks Stoddard had seen the [18]29 edition & must have known that Poe spoke the truth in saying there was an earlier edition. He is looking into this matter of the early poems very carefully. He was anxious to learn if I had heard from you during his absence, & seemed disappointed that I had not. The very next day your letter came, but I have not since seen him. About the lady's name. He said it was given as in Poe's sonnet in an early edition of her poems. Perhaps the one noticed, I think, in Female Poets of America, as Records of the Heart, but however this may be, I do not think it can affect your statement with the general reader. I think, however, that it might have been as well not to have entered so much into details. Yet in reverting to your volume (which, since writing the last sentence, I have done), I cannot see that you could well avoid the explanation about the name. You ask me to pitch into your “Memoir” or you shall think I don’t like it. To prove to you that I do — that I not only like it but feel it to be a work of great value, I am going to point out some marks of haste & to suggest some omissions & alterations. In speaking of “Ulalume” & my question as to its authorship, you call it the “new” poem. The word new is hardly applicable, since the poem had been published in December, 1847, and my question as to its authorship was made in September, 1848. It is not perhaps very important, but it a little impairs the versimilitude of the story. Why not substitute the word “weird” for new?

Again, it was not from Mr. Atkinson's report of Poe's lecture that this characterization of the poetry of the three New England poetesses was derived, but from Poe's own copy of a leaf from his MS. Mr. Atkinson published it among other notices from other sources, furnished him by me, in noticing the volume of my poems in 1853. Mr. Atkinson lived in Lowell at the time of Poe's lecture; I do not know that he heard it. He is related to my mother's family by marriage, and he was, at the time my book was published, editor & proprietor of the Newport paper in which this & other notices of my poems appeared.

You ask me to suggest alterations & omissions. I have hastily written something which, if you ever republish your “Memoir,” I should like to have inserted instead of the more detailed narrative which you have given, if you approve. You have done so well with the fragmentary materials which I entrusted to you that I do not like to give you trouble or suggest change.

I have been very unwell since the cold weather has become so severe, but think I shall rally in a few days. I want to send you an acknowledgement of your interesting letter by tomorrow's steamer & so have written at a pace that I fear will make my writing unintelligible.

I was interested but greatly surprised by what you tell me of Mrs. [page 244:] Clemm's letters. I fancy the part relating to Longfellow must be taken cum grano, etc. Do tell me more about them.

But now good night, for I am very, very weary. Ever affectionately your friend,

A suggested alteration for page 73:

In the early summer of 1848, we find Poe delivering a lecture in Lowell, on the Female Poets of America. In this lecture he gave to Mrs. Whitman a high rank among the poetesses of New England, ascribing to her “preeminence in refinement of art, enthusiasm, imagination & genius, properly so called.”

It has been said, & not without reason, that Poe's literary estimates were too often influenced by personal feeling; in the present instance, however, whatever personal feeling may have mingled with praise, it will be conceded by all competent critics that it had not warped his judgment.

You will understand that this last clause is to give connection with what follows: In the sentence beginning, “Mrs. Whitman, undoubtedly the finest,” I should prefer, “one of the finest.”

Then, after the eight lines at the foot of page 73, ending with “exalted passion,” I should leave out the line “Meanwhile the beautiful young widow lived on” etc., and the whole of page 74, down to the third line from the bottom, and begin at

These are simply suggestions. Do with them what you like — what you can.

I do not wonder that you thought some of the things which I told you simply that you might understand my story (mine & his) were supposed by you as intended for publication, but I confess that I should rather the “Memoir” had been less personal.

P.S. I am always delighted to hear from you. Do not be afraid of troubling me with questions. When you read the letters which I hope [page 245:] to copy for you (perhaps eventually to intrust to you) you will understand better why I am unable to answer so few questions as to the statistics of Poe's life.

I believe I omitted to send you my “Pansy.” I enclose it now. It was published in “The Easy Chair” anonymously, by my friend G. W. Curtis, in August or September, 1859.(3) I think it is one of my very best. I hope you will like it. This copy is from Prov. Journal. You will like the first ten lines, I think, from your own charming words about flowers.

Photographs not finished. Will send by Saturday's steamer.

What I told you about “Annabel Lee” was for yourself alone, & not with any wish that you should say anything on the subject in writing your “Memoir.”

It is far better to leave it, in its vague & mysterious beauty, than to make any claim or advance any theory on this contested question. I shall have some curious things to say to you on the subject when I have time. I see that in copying the third verse of the “Stanzas for Music” that the word “wild” occurs twice in the verse. It would be better to say “storm-beaten shore” rather than “wild ocean shore,” don’t you think so? About “Resurgamus,” is not that a mistake? Should it not be “Resurgemus”? I will write more fully by the next mail. Sincerely and gratefully,

 

1. See page 318, n.1.

2. Samuel Kettell (1800-1855), Specimens of American Poetry, with Critical and Biographical Notices, 3 vols. (Boston: S. G. Goodrich and Co., 1829). “ ‘Tamerlane and Other Poems,’ by a Bostonian. Boston, 1827,” appears on page 405 of Vol. III.

3. George William Curtis was editor of Harper's “The Easy Chair” in 1859.