Edgar Allan Poe: His Life, Letters, and Opinions — John H. Ingram, 1880, volume I — reading text

Edgar Allan Poe: His Life, Letters, and Opinions — John H. Ingram, 1880, volume I Historical biography by John H. Ingram, published by John Hogg in London in 1880. This volume preserves the preface, biographical data and chapters I–XIV. The two original volumes are separate local records. The historical illustrations are supplied as local JPEG downloads at the source repository’s resolution. This is a later electronic transcription of the historical book, not a complete photographic facsimile. Ingram’s biographical claims, quoted correspondence and assessments are historical testimony, including disputed claims, rather than modern verified findings. Modern website navigation, commentary, correction glosses and the later 1886-only index entry are excluded. Typography and page layout are simplified. The text has not been independently proofread word by word. This record does not claim to preserve Ingram’s separate 1874 memoir. jhi800c1.htm EDGAR ALLAN POE His Life, Letters, and Opinions BY JOHN H. INGRAM. “Unhappy Master whom unmerciful Disaster Followed fast and followed faster till his Songs one burden bore — Till the dirges of his Hope that melancholy burden bore Of ‘Never, — nevermore.’ ” With Portraits of Poe and His Mother. VOL. I. LONDON: JOHN HOGG, PATERNOSTER ROW 1880. ———— [All rights reserved.] CONTENTS OF VOLUME I. ——o—— PAGE PORTRAIT OF E. A. POE   ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     · Frontispiece PREFACE   ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     · v BIOGRAPHICAL DATA    ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     · xi CHAP. I. PARENTAGE      ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     · 1 II. CHILDHOOD       ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     · 10 III. BOYHOOD      ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     · 20 IV. FIRST LOVE      ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     · 37 V. ALMA MATER      ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     · 43 VI. DAWNINGS OF GENIUS      ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     · 54 VII. EASTWARD HO!      ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     · 62 VIII. WEST POINT       ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     · 79 IX. LITERATURE      ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     · 92 X. MARRIAGE      ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     · 136 XI. IN THE CITY OF PENN      ·     ·     ·     ·     · 153 XII. EDITOR OF “GRAHAM’S MAGAZINE”      ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     · 181 XIII. REVERSES       ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     · 207 XIV. NEW YORK ONCE MORE      ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     ·     · 259 John H. Ingram, “Preface,” Edgar Allan Poe: Life, Letters, and Opinions (1880), pp. v-viii PREFACE. ——o—— AT last, after several years of research, I am enabled to place a full and faithful life of Edgar Allan Poe before the world. It was due to myself, due to the public, and due to the memory of a much maligned man, that the short, vindicatory “Memoir” prefixed to my edition of Poe’s Works in 1874,* and my essays on his Life and Works — published before and after that sketch — should culminate in such a work as this. When that “Memoir of Poe” was published, I drew attention to the fact that no trustworthy biography of the poet had yet appeared in his own country, although that such a work had been frequently projected was then pointed out. Since the publication of my sketch, however, and its substitution in America for Griswold’s so-called “Memoir of Poe,” quite a plentiful supply of “Original” lives of the poet have appeared, and all — save one “based upon Griswold’s sketch” — have reproduced the whole of my material, without acknowledgment, and with scarcely an additional item of interest or value. My sketch, above referred to, having accomplished its purpose of proving that the obloquy overshadowing the poet’s moral character arose chiefly from the almost unparalleled hostility of his earliest biographer, it has not been deemed requisite in the following pages to allude, save slightly and incidentally, to the mythology of scandal which has grown up about Poe’s story. In preparing this final work upon Edgar Allan Poe, I have found no lack of new matter: the quality rather than the quantity of the proffered data has been my chief hindrance. To perceive how folk a man scarcely knew, and probably detested, will claim — and almost beyond power of refutation — to have enjoyed his friendly intimacy; to have supplied him with ideas; to have suggested his themes, and even to have written his works, is quite appalling. They misrepresent his idlest words; distort his most trivial remarks — perchance unintentionally; falsify dates, and, indeed, invent anecdotes; fabricate conversations, refrain from nothing, in order to prove their acquaintance with departed genius. The amount of mischief that can be, and is, manufactured out of a dead man’s relics is terrible. Woe betide the luckless mortal who leaves a history! Vivisection is merciful compared with the pitilessness of the post-mortem examination held upon his real and putative remains! Having learned all this, it would, indeed, have been a satisfaction to me to have felt assured that I had steered clear of all such unreliable gossip or malicious invention, and that my many years’ labour and research had culminated in such a work as Poe, in his reviewal of Carlyle’s Life of Schiller, portrays This biography is not merely a sketch of the poet’s life. . . . It is a gradual development of his heart and mind, of his nature as a poet and a man, that endears him more to us, while it enables us more thoroughly to comprehend him. We can trace here the growth of his faculties, and his progress amidst the struggles and obstacles of his early career; from the time when his’strong untutored spirit,’ consumed by its own activity, was chafing blindly, like ocean waves, against the barriers that restrained it — through difficulties and vexations which only his burning energy of soul enabled him to overcome — up to that calm, intellectual elevation, in the lucid expansion of which lie could watch the workings of his imagination, and subject the operations of his genius to the requisitions of taste.” In bidding farewell to what has engrossed so much of my life and labour, it is both pleasant and just that I should offer my grateful thanks to those who have so generously and so assiduously worked with me. To books my indebtedness as regards this “Life” is slight; few, beyond the “Edgar Poe and his Critics” of the late Mrs. Whitman, having been of any service to me: to that dear friend and fellow-worker my obligations are manifold and heavy. To the late Mrs. Houghton — the poet’s “Marie Louise” — my affectionate gratitude is stronger than words; to “Annie” — the poet’s own “Annie” — and to Mrs. Shelton, I am greatly beholden, as, also, to “Stella” and to Mrs. Gove Nichols. To Professor James Wood Davidson I am much indebted, both for material and aid, as likewise to Mr. E. V. Valentine, the Virginian sculptor; to my friend, Dr. W. Hand Browne of Baltimore, and to the late brave old John Neal, who, like so many fellow workers, has not stayed to see the completion of our labour. To the Poes of Baltimore, for correction of data, and copies of correspondence, my thanks are due; and to Mr. William Wertenbaker, and the Chairman and Faculty of the University of Virginia, and the late Professors T. Hewitt Key and George Long; to Colonel John T. Preston, for the use of his interesting reminiscences; to the authorities of West Point Military Academy; to Dr. N. H. Morison and Mr. John Parker of the Peabody Institute, Baltimore, and to all the many friends and correspondents — known and unknown — who have aided me in this work, my most sincere thanks are now heartily tendered. JOHN H. INGRAM LONDON, May 1880. *  Edinburgh: A. & C. Black. 4 vols. John H. Ingram, “Biographical Data,” Edgar Allan Poe: Life, Letters, and Opinions (1880), pp. xi-xiii BIOGRAPHICAL DATA. ——o—— January 19, 1809. Born at Boston, Massachusetts. December 8, 1811 His mother died at Richmond, Virginia. ” [Edgar Poe adopted by Mr. John Allan.] 1816. Brought to Europe, and placed at school to Stoke Newington. 1821. Returns to the United States. 1822. Placed at school in Richmond, Virginia. February 1, 1826. Enters University of Virginia. [Signs matriculation book, 14th February 1836.] December 15, 1826. Leaves University of Virginia. 1827. “Tamerlane and Other Poems” printed at Boston. June? 1827. Departs for Europe. March, 1829. Returns to Richmond, Virginia. ” Publishes “Al Aaraaf, Tamerlane, and Minor Poems,” at Baltimore. July 1, 1830. Admitted as cadet to West Point Military Academy. March 6, 1831. Dismissed the Military Academy. ” ” Publishes “Poems,” New York. Autumn, 1833. Gains prize from Saturday Visiter (Baltimore). December, 1835. Editor of the Southern Literary Messenger (Richmond, Virginia). May 16, 1836. Married to his cousin, Virginia Clemm, at Richmond. [Virginia C. born August 13th, 1822.] January, 1837. Resigns editorship of Southern Literary Messenger . 1837-8. Resides in New York. July, 1838. “Arthur Gordon Pym” published, New York and London. Autumn, 1838. Removes to Philadelphia. July, 1839. Editor of the Gentleman’s Magazine , Philadelphia. 1840. “Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque” published, Philadelphia. 1840. “The Conchologist’s Book” published, First Philadelphia. June, ” Resigns editorship of Gentleman’s Magazine . January, 1841. Editor of Graham’s Magazine , Philadelphia. April, 1842. Resigns editorship of Graham’s Magazine . Spring, 1843. Gains $100 prize for “The Gold Bug.” Autumn, 1844. Sub-editor of the Evening Mirror , New York. January 29, 1845. “The Raven” published in Evening Mirror . February 28, 1845. Lectures in New York Historical Society’s room. March 8, ” Joint-editor of the Broadway Journal . July, ” “Tales” published, New York and London. ” ” Sole-editor of the Broadway Journal . November 1, ” Proprietor of Broadway Journal . ” ” “The Raven and Other Poems” published, New York and London. Winter, ” Lectures at Boston Lyceum. December, ” Broadway Journal disposed of. February, 1846. “The Literati” begun in Godey’s Lady’s Book . June 23, ” Evening Mirror publishes libel. ” 28, ” “Reply” to libel in Philadelphia Saturday Gazette . Summer, ” Removes to Fordham. January 30, 1847. His wife dies. February 17, ” Gains libel suit against Evening Mirror . February 3, 1848. Lectures in New York Historical Society’s room. Summer, ” “Eureka” published, New York. ” ” Richmond, Virginia, revisited. ” ” Lectures at Lowell, Mass., and Providence, R.I. October, ” Betrothed to Mrs. Whitman. December, ” Engagement with Mrs. Whitman broken off. June 30, 1849. Departs for the South. Autumn, ” In Richmond and neighbourhood. October 17, ” Dies at Baltimore, Maryland. November 17, 1875. Monument Inaugurated, Baltimore. John H. Ingram, “Chapter 01,” Edgar Allan Poe: Life, Letters, and Opinions (1880), pp. 1-8 EDGAR ALLAN POE. ——♦—— CHAPTER I. PARENTAGE. EDGAR ALLAN POE was of gentle birth.* His paternal grandfather, General David Poe, the descendant of ancient and highly connected family, was born in Ireland, but, taken at a very early age by his parents to the United States, became a patriotic citizen of