Text: John C. Miller, ed., “Entry 097: Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram, May 11, 1875,” Poe's Helen Remembers (1979), pp. 288-289 (This material is protected by copyright)

[page 288, continued:]

97. Sarah Helen Whitman to John H. Ingram. Item 225

My dear Mr. Ingram,

I wrote so hurriedly in my letter of Friday last that I left many of your questions unanswered. I have neither seen nor heard of any unfavorable criticism of your “Memoir,” with the exception of that in the Nation, and that is so palpably unjust that it betrays its animus too plainly to influence an unprejudiced reader. Still I fear the covert malice of the writer may work furtively to injure. About an hour after I had posted my letter, Mr. Harris called on me, having only the day previous returned from his protracted visit in Philadelphia, where he had been unexpectedly detained by the illness of a friend. He told me that he received a letter from you informing him that you had received copies of the 1829 & 1845 editions of the poems, etc., etc. I told him of the Nation's appearance in the field (which he had not seen) and showed him the article on the “Original Memoir” which he thought admirably done, & evidently wished to see it republished.

I have looked at last week's issue of the Nation. The enemy has not yet opened battery, but doubtless lies in ambush for a secret attack. I saw in the Westminster Quarterly Review for April, yesterday, a favorable notice of your “Memoir” & a passing allusion to Lotus Leaves. I received on Saturday a new & revised copy of the latter volume, sent me by Mr. Gill. I will send you the pages on Poe as they stand in the first edition, with my corrections, as incorporated in the 2nd, next week. I have heard nothing of an American edition of Poe's works in which the “Memoir” of Griswold has been replaced by Graham's letter.

I am afraid you thought me causelessly anxious & distrustful in what I said about Poe's letters, etc. There is one thing of which I feel no doubt, & that is of Poe's heartfelt love and gratitude to M.L.S. But what is the meaning of a poem in Poe's handwriting, which is supposed to have been “possibly written by Mrs. Nichols”!(1) Is that poem in your possession, & if it is, can you let me see a copy of it? I shall keep strictly private anything that you may intrust to me in this connection.

I can hardly explain to you why I am thus anxious; I can only again urge you to investigate carefully & judge calmly all that may come [page 289:] under your inspection under the name of unpublished writings & letters — all copies of such, I mean. Of course there is no mistaking the handwriting. Do Mrs. N[ichols] & Mrs. H[oughton] corroborate each other's statements, &, if so, why do you say the former is apparently “very imaginative”? About the poem to the “B[eloved] P[hysician],” there is something not quite — what shall I say — vraisemblable? Although I am well aware that the vrai is not always the vraisemblable.

It would take me long to tell you my reasons. I should not dare to say all this to you did I not believe that you know me well enough to know that my jealous care of Poe's reputation is the only “jealousy” that I feel in this matter. I cannot quite reconcile myself to the expression “The Madman Poe.” Has Mrs. Nichols ever spoken to you of Miss Blackwell? I saw yesterday an extract from the report of the London Dialectical Society on Spiritualism containing an account of certain phenomena witnessed by Miss Anna Blackwell in presence of Hume.

I am very weary & must say no more tonight. Will try to write by the next steamer.

Don’t let anything I say influence you to distrust your own deliberate judgment — only let it be deliberate.

Devotedly your friend,

Can you tell me why you thought that Griswold's “Memoir” had been withdrawn from a new American edition of Poe's works? I am anxious to know if this is true.

 

1. Mrs. Nichols had written and sent to Mrs. Shew in 1847 a valentine entitled “Like All True Souls of Noble Birth.” Poe had copied it into Mrs. Houghton's album, from whence Dora Houghton copied it out and enclosed her copy to Ingram on Apr. 3, 1875. See Items 39 and 213 in the Ingram Poe Collection and Building Poe Biography, p. 122, for a discussion of this poem.