Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 079: John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman, Dec. 28, 1874,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 238-242 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 238, continued:]

79. John H. Ingram to Sarah Helen Whitman

My dear Friend,

First and foremost do not notice any nonsense which I talked about [page 239:] in my last letter. And now to reply to your ever welcome communication of the 13th Instant.

In the first place, never mind commenting on any of the notices of my “Memoir” I sent you, because it is wasting your powers — 99 out of 100 reviews are not worth preserving — are written either by friends or foes &, in either case are unreliable — the latter may be the better as sometimes they detect a flaw in one's armour, and by pointing it out, teach us how to make all safe.

Some few of the higher class publications have spoken out, and one — the Saturday Review — has “pitched into” me slightly — not very severely, however, especially for a journal that lives by paradoxical onslaughts. The Examiner has a critique by E. W. Gosse, a young poet & follower of Swinburne — he at once consigns Griswold to the depths of Inferno and your humble servant to Paradise, &c. Probably the Saturday Sneerer will prove a more profitable paper for me than the other.

I enclose you a cutting from a Scotch paper & sent you the conclusion of Gilfillan's rhapsody. I send you also a prospectus with a few extracts but, as I shall have the best extracts reprinted, you must please wait for any more unless I see aught to interest you specially.(1) Mrs. Botta may not have letters, but might give something new, or direct to something fresh. Mrs. E. O. Smith I had written to ere yours arrived — many thanks for your useful hints, however. I will try & look up Mr. Wellford, but I have so many channels now open that I can scarcely keep even with them all. Still I do not wish to lose a single chance.

I shall be glad to see the 1831 edition of Mr. Harris. The 1829 edition is in Peabody Institute, Baltimore, & contains some more suppressed poetry — one entire new poem which I will send you copy of. It has just been reprinted in a new book here, Sorrow & Song, by Henry Curwen who edited Hotten's ed. of Poe — Mr. Curwen's “Memoir” of Poe repeats all the old lies with a few new exaggerations of his own. I shall review it. In this “Memoir” you are — amongst other qualifications — “one of the wealthiest women” in New England, &c.

I fancy the 1827 vol. must be a very little book. The 1829 vol. only contains 71 pages. Stoddard, I fancy, has some of the suppressed verse in his book.

I have seen some other notices besides the one you send, but they are the old old story. As soon as my “Memoir” gets known in America, Stoddard will be literally “snuffed out.”

I am looking forwards to see [sic] Mrs. Gove Nichols. M. L. S(hew) was the friend who provided the grave clothes for Mrs. Poe — not Mrs. Lewis. Gill's notice I have not seen. I do not place much reliance upon his steady perseverance, but would help him for the sake of the good [page 240:] cause. The birth was Jany. 19th, in Charlottesville record as you have seen, & which I think I can now prove. Stoddard has followed your copy, as I did. Boston was the birthplace, during the winter engagement of his parents at the Theatre. This will all be proved!

While I think of it, did you get your duplicate Vol. i & two copies of Vol. ii? I desired Blacks to forward same, but they have muddled the book copies awfully. I hope you have, but you do not say so.

In Jany. or March — entre nous — your New York International will, I presume, publish my native “Memoir” of Poe.

As regards portraits of Poe, I hoped Blacks would engrave Mrs. Lewis's fine one for Vol. iv. ’Tis in their hands but, I fear, too late. If so, we must content ourselves with photo. copies. Mr. Davidson, who has been most kind, has today sent me official copies of the trial of Cadet E. A. Poe for the West Point affair.(2) He was tried & convicted for disobedience of orders & “gross neglect” of duties beyond all dispute — but his gross neglect consisted not in refusal but neglect to attend church & other parades, & apparently, in being bullied by boys — there is nothing a liberal person can construe into evil. Eureka! shall be our motto.

Mr. Valentine has written again from Richmond — he is trying hard to help me. He has met a Dr. Ambler, who was a playmate & fellow swimmer with Poe. Dr. Ambler refers Mr. Valentine] to another party who can give information “about a debating society on which Poe wrote a satire when quite a child,” &c. Dr. A[mbler] will send his recollections of Poe — he knew Ebenezer Burling, Poe's friend. Mr. V[alentine] has received a letter from Mrs. Shelton (née Royster) in which she “regrets that she is not prepared to give any information in regard to Mr. Poe's early life,” but Mr. V[alentine] will try her again. Mr. Valentine has a “life-size crayon head of Poe from a daguerreotype of Poe which” is supposed to have belonged to Mr. J. R. Thompson.

If ever you get any clue to the precise date of the explanation of the “Conchology” story in the Home Journal, let me know — as you will see, my explanation in the “Memoir” is very vague. The Home Journal is not in the British Museum or I would ferret it out. Griswold said Margaret Fuller reviewed Poe's early (1829) poems in the Tribune in 1846. I have looked thro’ the whole vol. for 1846 but vainly! Griswold could not, I believe, even when he tried, tell a correct date. I think I’ve found out the name of the publisher who speaks of Poe (in the Northern Monthly) as having been connected with him before he was with Willis on the Mirror: viz. Lockwood, the publisher of “The Album” & the giver of the gold medal (to Yale College in 1826) won by Willis as a student. I know no more, but that is a clue — can you throw any light on the subject? You will remember & vide “Memoir” that he [page 241:] had published a life of Poe & said he could publish some revelations as to the cause of Poe's troubles — therefore a valuable aid to us.

And now for extract, or copies, of Mrs. Clemm's letters in possession of his cousin Neilson Poe. These, mind, are entre nous at present. They are written to N. Poe —

Neilson Poe married Virginia's half sister (Mrs. Clemm's stepdaughter). And now enough for the present. I fear you will not get through all this. Faithfully ever & ever yours,

[Commenting on Mrs. Clemm's letter, Mrs. Whitman annotated the last page:] This letter is full of singular mistakes as to dates.

 

1. Ingram's oft-repeated contempt for reviews notwithstanding, he did indeed have many of the favorable reviews of his 1874-75 edition of Poe's Works reprinted: Extracts [page 242:] from Opinions of the British Press on the Memoir of Poe, by John H. Ingram, published with Extracts from Quarterlies, Weeklies, Dailies, etc., followed by Extracts from the American (Southern) Press (London: E. J. Francis and Co., n.d.), 4 pp. A copy of this brochure is in the Sarah Helen Whitman Papers, Brown University Library.

2. The official manuscript copy of Poe's trial was made by the U.S. War Department in 1875. This 14-page document is Item 4 in the Ingram Poe Collection.

3. For complete text of Mrs. Clemm's letter, see Building Poe Biography, pp. 46-49.