Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 013: John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman, Feb. 27, 1874,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 43-47 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 43, continued:]

13. John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman

My dear Mrs. Whitman,

On my return home from official duty I had the pleasure of finding your most interesting and welcome letter [Feb. 1]; its enclosures, and Harper's Monthly. I was just going off to a dinner party, and had only time to skim over its contents, en route, but having reread it since, twice, I will now try to reply to its friendly contents seriatim.

As regards my boyish verses, it is, of course, kind of you to speak of them, but I have thought it necessary to relinquish poesy for ten long years, finding that I had not the “elegant leisure” Griswold speaks of, to devote to what would otherwise have been the impassioned occupation of my life. I never have, I know it, written anything in [page 44:] rhyme worth preservation, but had my life run on in the same pleasant paths in which it began, I feel that I could have done something the world would not willingly let die. Your words have touched a secret spring and the hopes & aspirations — long since crushed down, fettered under a heavy weight of woe — gush forth anew. But alas! I fear the day is gone for me! I have loved — I do love poesy with an idolatrous adoration! But enough of these “forbidden things”! If I can find some more titles of the unbound vol. you shall have them, but I am ashamed to send them. I should have cut those two pieces out: they were only to show you how long I had worshipped Poe. I have, I fancy, only one bound copy, and that I want to preserve: it is full of corrections, printer's errors, &c. In “Lauralie,” I see, they have “as” for “has” — that was not my fault. You shall have the “half told story” but it scarcely comes up to Chaucer! As regards No. 1 of “New Facts” title, en passant, [it] was not mine — it was cut up & pulled out mercifully [sic] by Ed. of Mirror to suit his ideas, but No. 2 is my own, as a rule. I sent you copy at once & enclose another.(1) Temple Bar has again been deferred — ’tis too bad! Hope deferred, with me, makes the heart sick. As regards the “Conchology” clue, it turned out nothing. I had been referred to the International (American) Magazine for Sept. 1850, and when I looked there I found only Griswold's “Memoir” with the note you know of: the “Memoir” must, therefore, have appeared there before it was prefixed to the collection.(2) By the way, my collection [of Griswold's edition of Poe's works], in 4 vols., was published in 1863 by Widdleton, New York, and now I see, in Allibone, that later editions have some 200 or 300 more pages. What date is yours? If the more recent ones contain more matter, I must get them. I know my edition does not contain a great deal that Edgar Poe wrote: some of his “Marginalia,” his papers on “Autography,” “Cryptology,” &c. are absent. Mais, revenez a nos moutons — “Conchology” affair I will work out satisfactorily now, I don’t doubt.

As regards the South Carolina lady, I can manage without any particulars — it will, perhaps, be as well for me to return that portion of your letter, but I don’t like parting with your writing. You are now, & forever, enwound in my mind with Israfel — and I treasure every scrap of yours. “The trees which grow around a temple soon grow dear as the temple's self.” I hope we may both be spared for me to some day come to speak my thoughts to you viva voce. “To Isadore” struck me as the style & manner of Poe: it was unsigned but then so are some of his earlier pieces & I felt sure it was his: others think so too. Most of the scraps & cuttings, I have already returned, having copied them, but will retain everything else you do not ask for. I will review E.P. & His C. in the Mirror & send it to you. I published “The Portrait” therein, as also a note. I will forward it in next letter. If I can reprint it elsewhere, [page 45:] emendation shall be made. Did you get Flora Symbolica? Don’t accept it as a fair specimen of my skill. It-was written under pressure of terrible grief chiefly, indeed to occupy my mind — years ago — before I was 20. I wrote several tales in which Imagination had full sway — I rewrote one or two, and wrote some others based entirely upon my studies of Poe & Hawthorne, & had arranged with a publisher for their publication in a vol. & in sending them from one of his warehouses to the other the MSS. were lost! They refused me any compensation — not that that could soften the loss of my hopes and aims — and I have now placed the matter in my solicitor's hands, but do not think that I shall get a penny from the firm because they are too wealthy & the head of it is a canting humbug. My poor stories! They would have given you a better idea of my imaginative powers than a mere book, as Flora Symbolica is.

Your Via Dolorosa recalled the Via Mala to my mind: have you traversed it? from Chur to Splügen. That is a spot for poets to see & almost despair over, but even it is not so terrifically grand as the Splügen Pass. As yet I have only just had a glimpse of la bella Italia & now my heart longs for it as the “hart pants for the water brooks” — My photo! Well, you shall have it soon, but I have not a single copy left. My last & best carto was taken in Germany & I am just going to send for some & will forward as soon as they arrive & perhaps you will not deem me impertinent if I ask for an exchange? You will not mind sending me your face, will you? Talking of Germany reminds me of a letter just received from America from some acquaintances made there (i.e., in Germany) a few years ago: knowing my want of information as regards my hero, they have just sent me a sketch of the life & character of E.A. Poe written by a professor of Baltimore. I need scarcely quote one sentence to prove its value — “he had three wives, the last of whom was the beautiful Virginia Clemm” &c., &c. It is shameful to see such ignorance of their greatest author in America.

As regards Stoddard's paper — by the way, how am I to recompense you for your kindness? Do you want any English publications? To Stoddard — I am savage with him. His paper is little more than a compilation of your book E.P. & His C., Griswold's “Memoir,” and Powell's life in The Living Authors of America. This last was written just after Poe's death & is very kind — only one cruel statement, i.e., his expulsion from the University. Powell (an Englishman) shewed himself a great admirer of Poe & was, consequently, secretly defamed by Griswold: do you know his book? Stoddard did surprise me in saying that Poe shewed no trace of classic education in his works! Either Powell is no judge or he [Stoddard?] has not read Poe's works. His “Grecian Fiddlestick” has [poisoned?] him against the subject of his sketch. Where Poe went to school is not like description in “William [page 46:] Wilson,” but the opposite house resembles his description. The calligraphy story I have shewn the falsity of in “New Facts” & in Temple Bar paper. I have copy of a long letter by Poe to J. Kennedy & expect some more. Poe was dismissed from West Point but the enclosed scrap will explain why.(3) Russia, I fancy, he never saw. Mr. E. Schuyler, Secretary of your Legation, has kindly had books of the Embassy & Consulate searched & not an allusion in either.(4) General Cullum, I fancy, is wrong about early vol. being dedicated to Bulwer. Bulwer's son, the present Lord Lytton, is almost sure that his father never heard of the dedication, or from Poe. Was the B— Ebenezer Burling, who was to have accompanied Poe to Greece? Do you know anything of Mrs. M. St. Leon Loud?(5) Thereby hangs a tale, I ween. I have copies, now, of many of the poems, as published in 1831 — “To F.S.O.,” quoted in “New Facts” No. 1, appeared in 1836 to “Eliza” — the name of “Helen” occurs frequently. Was there anything in the story of “Alice” think you? Poor Mrs. Clemm did no good, I fancy, with her reminiscences. I’ll write to Mr. Gill. As for Gilfillan, he is already forgotten in England.(6) I can prove other falsehoods of Griswold's besides those mentioned: he was so careless, that I can easily disprove many allegations. I’ll wind off for post, but more information next time.

P.S. The photograph from Poe's portrait would be invaluable in my eyes.

 

1. Ingram's “More New Facts about Edgar Allan Poe,” reprinted following this letter, survives in only one known copy: three pages which Ingram clipped for his own files, now in the Ingram Poe Collection. The London Mirror for 1872-74 was published in four volumes; of these only one copy of Vol. IV is extant and is now in the Library Company of Philadelphia. This article shows how quickly and in what fashion Ingram used the materials Mrs. Whitman had sent to him in the foregoing letters. Here one can get a fully characteristic view of Ingram's tone and attitude as he attacked Griswold's “Memoir”; one can also observe Ingram's style, with its slipshod grammar, awkward sentence structures and repetitions, none of which Ingram changed in his writings about Poe over the next forty-five years.

2. Griswold's “Memoir” of Poe did appear in the International Magazine, Oct. 1, 1850.

3. Robert W. Hall, U.S. Military Academy, West Point, wrote Ingram on Feb. 3, 1874, that the records of the academy showed that Poe had been admitted as a cadet on July 1, 1830; the following Jan. he had been tried by a general court martial and his dismissal had taken place on the following Mar. 6. Item 117 in the Ingram Poe Collection.

4.Eugene Schuyler, secretary of the U.S. Legation, St. Petersburg, Russia, had written Ingram on Feb. 2, 1874, that a search of the Legation papers from 1820 to 1830 showed nothing relating to Edgar A. Poe. On Feb. 6, 1874, Schuyler had written again to say that he had searched the books of the U.S. Consulate and that he had found no record whatever of Edgar A. Poe having been detained. Items 116 and 118 in the Ingram Poe Collection. [page 47:]

5. Mrs. Margaret Barstow St. Leon Loud was a minor poet of Philadelphia whose husband, John, had offered Poe $100 to edit his wife's poems by Christmas of 1849.

6. In early 1854 the Rev. George Gilfillan (1813-1878) published a rancorous sketch of Poe's life and career in the London Critic, in which he quite outdid Griswold. This article was republished in both the Southern Literary Messenger and Littell's Living Age Apr. 1854, and in Gilfillan's Third Gallery of Portraits (New York: Sheldon, Lamport, and Blakeman, 1855), V, 325-38.