Whitman, Sarah Helen Power, 1803-1878

Variant names

Hide Profile

Sarah Helen Power Whitman (January 19, 1803 – June 27, 1878) was an American poet, essayist, transcendentalist, spiritualist and a romantic interest of Edgar Allan Poe.

Whitman was born in Providence, Rhode Island on January 19, 1803, exactly six years before Poe's birth. She was the daughter of Nicholas Power. In 1828, she married the poet and writer John Winslow Whitman. John had been co-editor of the Boston Spectator and Ladies' Album, which allowed Sarah to publish some of her poetry using the name "Helen". John died in 1833; he and Sarah never had children.

Sarah Helen Whitman had a heart condition that she treated with ether she breathed in through her handkerchief.

Whitman was friends with Margaret Fuller and other intellectuals in New England. She became interested in transcendentalism through this social group and after hearing Ralph Waldo Emerson lecture in Boston, Massachusetts and in Providence. She also became interested in science, mesmerism, and the occult. She had a penchant for wearing black and a coffin-shaped charm around her neck and may have practiced séances in her home on Sundays, attempting to communicate with the dead.

Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe first crossed paths in Providence in July 1845. Poe was attending a lecture by friend and poet Frances Sargent Osgood. As Poe and Osgood walked, they passed the home of Whitman while she was standing in the rose garden behind her house. Poe declined to be introduced to her. By this time, Whitman was already an admirer of Poe's stories. She admitted to her friend Mary E. Hewitt: I can never forget the impressions I felt in reading a story of his for the first time... I experienced a sensation of such intense horror that I dared neither look at anything he had written nor even utter his name... By degrees this terror took the character of fascination—I devoured with a half-reluctant and fearful avidity every line that fell from his pen.

A friend, Annie Lynch, had asked Whitman to write a poem for a Valentine's Day party in 1848. She agreed, and wrote one for Poe, though he was not in attendance. Poe heard about the tribute, "To Edgar Allan Poe," and returned the favor by anonymously sending his previously-printed poem "To Helen". Whitman may not have known it was from Poe himself, and she did not respond. Three months later, Poe wrote her an entirely new poem, "To Helen," referencing the moment from several years earlier where Poe first saw her in the rose garden behind her house.

Poe was on his way to see Whitman at the time of his alleged suicide attempt. Before boarding a train to Boston from Lowell, Massachusetts on his way to Providence, he took two doses of laudanum. By the time he arrived in Boston he was very sick and close to death. He spent four days in Providence with her immediately after. Though they shared a common interest in literature, Poe was concerned about Whitman's friends, many for whom he had little regard, including Elizabeth F. Ellet, Margaret Fuller, and several other Transcendentalists. He said to her, "My heart is heavy, Helen, for I see that your friends are not my own."

The two exchanged letters and poetry for some time before discussing engagement. After Poe lectured in Providence in December 1848, reciting a poem by Edward Coote Pinkney directly to Whitman, she agreed to an "immediate marriage". Poe agreed to remain sober during their engagement — a vow he violated within only a few days. Whitman's mother discovered that Poe was also pursuing Annie Richmond and childhood sweetheart Sarah Elmira Royster. Even so, the wedding had come so close to occurring that, in January 1849, a newspaper in New London, Connecticut and others announced their union and wished them well. At one point, they chose the wedding date of December 25, 1848, despite criticism of the relationship from friends and enemies alike. Whitman supposedly received an anonymous letter while she was at the library suggesting that Poe had broken his vow to her to stay sober, directly leading to an end of the relationship. Poe said in a letter to Whitman (addressed "Dear Madam") that he blamed her mother for their split. Rufus Wilmot Griswold, Poe's infamous first biographer, claimed that Poe purposely ended his relationship with Whitman the day before their wedding by committing unnamed drunken "outrages" that, as he wrote in his biography, "made necessary a summons of the police".

Whitman's collection Hours of Life, and Other Poems was published in 1853. In 1860, eleven years after his death, she published a work in defense of Poe against his critics, aimed especially at Rufus Griswold, entitled Edgar Allan Poe and His Critics. A Baltimore newspaper said the book was a noble effort "but it does not wipe out the... dishonorable records in the biography of Dr. Griswold." The work likely inspired William Douglas O'Connor to write The Good Gray Poet, a similar defense of Walt Whitman, published in 1866. She corresponded with Poe's English biographer, John Henry Ingram, who added her letters from Poe and a daguerrotype portrait to the library of material he was assembling; Ingram's Poe collection is now held at the Alderman Library at the University of Virginia.

Sarah Helen Whitman died at the age of 75 on June 27, 1878 at the home of a friend at 97 Bowen St. in Providence, Rhode Island, and is buried in the North Burial Ground. In her will, she used the bulk of her estate to publish a volume of her own poetry and that of her sister. She also left money to the Providence Association for the Benefit of Colored Children and the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Archival Resources
Role Title Holding Repository
referencedIn Doris, Virginia Louise. Papers of Virginia Doris, 1989. University of Virginia. Library
creatorOf Chace, Louise,. Scrapbooks relating to Sarah Helen Whitman, [ca. 1900-1933]. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Whitman, Sarah Helen, 1803-1878. Papers of Sarah Helen Whitman [manuscript], 1872, n.d. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn Sarah Helen Whitman : article, 1878, July 15. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Whitman, Sarah Helen, 1803-1878. [Collection of newspaper clippings and excerpts from magazines about Edgar Allan Poe.]. Indiana University
creatorOf Harris, Caleb Fiske, 1818-1881. Papers, 1867-1881. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Chace, Maude Dailey. Papers, 1900-1924. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Collection, 1830-1895. Houghton Library
referencedIn Damon, S. Foster (Samuel Foster), 1893-1971. Research notes on Edgar Allan Poe, 1931-1935. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Lilly, Josiah Kirby, 1861-1948. Letters collected by Josiah K. Lilly [manuscript], 1848-1855. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn Correspondence and clippings pertinent to Sarah Helen Whitman and Edgar Allan Poe [manuscript], 1976. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn Dailey, Charlotte Field, d. 1914. Miscellaneous manuscripts relating to the Sarah Helen Whitman Papers, 1824-1946. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Whitman, Sarah Helen, 1803-1878. Letter, 1870, to Edward Everett Hale. University of Pennsylvania Libraries, Van Pelt Library
referencedIn Benjamin, Walter Romeyn, 1854-1943,. American and English literary and historical papers collected by Atcheson L. Hench [manuscript] 1780-1933. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn Jacobs, Sarah Sprague, 1813-. Sarah Helen Whitman : eulogy, [ca. 1878]. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Whitman, Sarah Helen, 1803-1878. The Lost church, translation into English of poem by Ludwig Uhland, ca. 1850-1878. Pennsylvania State University Libraries
creatorOf Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849. Manuscript notes for Pinkadia [manuscript] : Review for Godey's Dec. 1845, of Poetical works of Elizabeth Oakes Smith ; Letter to Poe from Charles Dickens, 1846 ; Letters concerning him between Rufus W. Griswold, James K. Paulding, John R. Thompson, Sarah Helen Whitman, Julian Hawthorne, Robert Underwood Johnson, Richard Henry Savage, 1843-1896, 1836-1896. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn Houghton Mifflin Company contracts, 1831-1979 (inclusive) 1880-1940 (bulk). Houghton Library
referencedIn Wyman, Lillie Buffum Chace, 1847-1929. Letter, 1926, September 17, Newtonville, Massachusetts, to Harry Lyman Koopman. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Bailey, Jacob Whitman, 1811-1857,. Letters from Jacob Whiteman Bailey (1811-57) to his mother, brother, and others written from West Point Military Academy [manuscript] 1832-1876. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn Bartlett, John Russell, 1805-1886. Letter, 1883, Providence, to William F. Channing. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn W, S. Letter, 1868, December 8, Boston, Mass., to Miss Mary. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Converse(?), E. M. Letter, [1835-1877], to St. Anna [Susan Anna Power]. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Dailey, Charlotte Field, d.1914. Papers, 1883-1913. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Wilde, Francesca, Lady. Letter, 1872, Nov. 4 : Dublin. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Doris, Virginia Louise. Papers : chiefly regarding Edgar Allan Poe and Sarah Helen Power Whitman, 1976. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn Spencer, Anna Garlin, 1851-1931. Letters received, 1923, New York, Providence, etc. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Noyes. Letter, Norwich, to Mary, 1868 June 21. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Ingram, John Henry, 1842-1916. Letters to Sarah Helen Whitman, Dec. 16, 1874 [i.e. Dec. 20, 1873] to Feb. 2, 1878, London, England, 1873-1878. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Edgar Allan Poe Collection TXRC99-A0., 1766-1974 (bulk 1829-1850) Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
referencedIn Review Club (Providence, Rhode Island). Meeting report, 1907, April 6. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Sarah Helen Whitman papers, Whitman (Sarah Helen) papers, 1816-1878, 1816-1878 Brown University Library, Special Collections
referencedIn Ritchie, Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt, 1819-1873. J. R. Thompson's account of Poe as given to Mrs. Ritchie & by her relative to Mrs. [Julia D.] Freeman : essay(fragment), [after 1849]. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Channing, William Francis, 1820-1901. Letters, 1878-1900, Providence and Boston. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849. Poe-Chivers papers, 1827-1885. Huntington Library, Art Collections & Botanical Gardens
referencedIn Collection, 1830-1895. Houghton Library
referencedIn Ticknor, Caroline, 1866-1937. Letters, 1930-1934, Massachusetts, to Philip D. Sherman. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Poets of America, extra-illustrated. Houghton Library
referencedIn Ticknor, George, 1791-1871. Letter, [ca. 1868], Cambridge, to Mrs. Sarah H. Whitman. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Botta, Anne C. Lynch (Anne Charlotte Lynch), 1815-1891. Papers, 1835-1894. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Collier, Thomas Stephen, 1842-1893. Letter, 1877, Nov. 8, New London, Conn., to G. W. Danielson. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Ticknor, George, 1791-1871. Letter, [ca. 1868], Cambridge, to Mrs. Sarah H. Whitman. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Whitman, Sarah Helen, 1803-1878. Letters to Elizabeth Oakes Prince Smith, 1856-1935. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Wyman, Lillie Buffum Chace, 1847-1929. Visitors and home people in old Providence, [1901-1925?]. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Whitin, Albert H., d.1937. Sarah Helen Whitman, an appreciation, 1928, June, Rome. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Ingram, John, 1842-1916. Letters to Sarah Helen Whitman, 1874, December 16 to 1878, February 2, London, England. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Bailey, William Whitman, 1843-1914. Recollections of Sarah Helen Whitman ; [ca. 1890]. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Doris, Virginia Louise. Papers : regarding Edgar Allan Poe, 1975-1976. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn Varner, John Grier, 1905-1978. Papers, 1798-1978 (bulk 1931-39). Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
creatorOf Kohler, Dayton, 1907-1972,. Papers of James Southall Wilson relating to Edgar Allan Poe [manuscript] 1809-89 & 1922-61. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn Thomas A. Jenckes papers, Jenckes (Thomas A.) papers, 1834-1870 John Hay Library, Special Collections
creatorOf Ingram, John Henry, 1842-1916. Letters to Sarah Helen Whitman [manuscript], 1874 December 16-1878 February 2. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn Durfee, Job, 1790-1847. Letter, 1846, June 22, Tiverton, R.I., to Wilkins Updike. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Smith, Elizabeth Oakes Prince, 1806-1893. Papers of Elizabeth Oakes Prince Smith [manuscript], 1823-1894. University of Virginia. Library
creatorOf Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849. Letters of Edgar Allen Poe [manuscript] 1843-48. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn Smith, Elizabeth Oakes Prince, 1806-1893. Poems, [ca. 1884], Blue Point, N.Y. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Miller, John Carl. Poe's Helen remembers [manuscript], ca.1979. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn John Grier Varner Papers TXRC93-A0., 1798-1978 Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
creatorOf Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849. Autograph letter (facs.) signed Edgar to: "Helen" November] 24, [1848]. Wellesley College
creatorOf Whitman, Sarah Helen, 1803-1878. Recollections of Sarah Helen Whitman, 1905 [manuscript], 1872-1905. University of Virginia. Library
creatorOf Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849. Transcripts of Poe letters [manuscript] 1836-49. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn Free Library of Philadelphia Collection of Literary Manuscripts, 1666-1990 Free Library of Philadelphia: Rare Book Department
referencedIn Savage, James, 1784-1873. Letters, ca.1857. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Neal, John, 1793-1876. Correspondence of John Neal [manuscript], 1846-1876. University of Virginia. Library
creatorOf Wayland, M. Elizabeth Blodgett, d. 1860. Letter, 1853, April 1, to Sarah Helen Whitman. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849. Poe material from the Enoch Pratt Free Library [manuscript], 1809-1865. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn Doris, Virginia. Photographs of portraits of Edgar Allan Poe and Sarah Helen Whitmanm 1975. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn Hale, Sarah Josepha Buell, 1788-1879. Letters, 1828-1868. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Doris, Virginia Louise. Manuscripts and correspondence : on Edgar Allan Poe, 1975 and 1976. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn Doris, Virginia Louise. Papers : regarding Sarah Helen Whitman, 1959-1976. University of Virginia. Library
creatorOf Whitman, Sarah Helen, 1803-1878. Papers, 1816-1878. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
referencedIn Thomas A. Jenckes papers, Jenckes (Thomas A.) papers, 1834-1870 John Hay Library, Special Collections
creatorOf Hay, John, 1838-1905. Correspondence, 1854-1914, "Watts" to "Willamov". Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Ingram, John Henry, 1842-1916. Letter, 1874, August 3, London, England, to Sarah Helen Whitman. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849. Edgar Allan Poe Collection, 1766-1974 (bulk 1829-1850). Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
referencedIn Miller, John Carl, 1916-1979. Papers of John Carl Miller [manuscript] 1830-1979. University of Virginia. Library
referencedIn Mallarmé, Stéphane, 1842-1898. Letter, 1880, October 28, Paris, to Mrs. Albert Dailey [Charlotte (Field)]. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
creatorOf Pabodie, William Jewett, 1813-1870. Letter, 1852, June 11, Providence, Rhode Island, to Rufus W. Griswold. Brown University Archives, John Hay Library
Role Title Holding Repository
Relation Name
associatedWith Alcott, Amos Bronson, 1799-1888. person
associatedWith Allen, Mrs. person
associatedWith American Book Mart, corporateBody
associatedWith Bailey, William Whitman, 1843-1914. person
associatedWith Bartlett, John Russell, 1805-1886. person
associatedWith Baudelaire, Charles, 1821-1867. person
associatedWith Botta, Anne C. Lynch (Anne Charlotte Lynch), 1815-1891 person
associatedWith Brownson, Orestes Augustus, 1803-1876 person
associatedWith Chace, Louise, person
associatedWith Chace, Maude Dailey. person
associatedWith Channing, William Ellery, 1780-1842. person
associatedWith Channing, William Francis, 1820-1901. person
associatedWith Clemm, Maria (Poe), 1790- . person
associatedWith Collier, Thomas Stephen, 1842-1893. person
associatedWith Converse(?), E. M. person
associatedWith Curtis, George William, 1824-1892 person
associatedWith Dailey, Charlotte Field, d.1914. person
associatedWith Damon, S. Foster (Samuel Foster), 1893-1971. person
associatedWith Day, Sarah Gould. person
associatedWith Doris, Virginia Louise McCullough person
associatedWith Dorr, Thomas Wilson, 1805-1854 person
associatedWith Durfee, Job, 1790-1847. person
associatedWith Forrest, Mary person
associatedWith Free Library of Philadelphia. corporateBody
correspondedWith Freeman, Julia Deane, 1825-1866 person
associatedWith Gill, William Fearing, 1844-1917. person
associatedWith Greeley, Horace, 1811-1872. person
associatedWith Greene, [Charles Chauncey?], fl. 1875-1880. person
associatedWith Griswold, Rufus Willmot, 1815-1857 person
associatedWith Hale, Edward Everett, 1822-1909. person
associatedWith Hale, Sarah Josepha Buell, 1788-1879. person
associatedWith Harris, Caleb Fiske, 1818-1881. person
associatedWith Hay, John, 1838-1905. person
associatedWith Houghton Mifflin Company. corporateBody
associatedWith Ingram, John, 1842-1916. person
associatedWith Jacobs, Sarah Sprague, 1813- person
associatedWith Jenckes, Thomas A. (Thomas Allen), 1818-1875 person
associatedWith Lilly, Josiah Kirby, 1861-1948. person
associatedWith Lilly, Josiah Kirby, 1893-1966, person
associatedWith Mallarmé, Stéphane, 1842-1898. person
associatedWith Miller, John Carl 1916-1979 person
associatedWith Moulton, Louise Chandler, 1835-1908. person
associatedWith Neal, John, 1793-1876. person
associatedWith Noyes. person
associatedWith Oaksmith, G. person
associatedWith O'Connor, William Douglas, 1832-1889 person
associatedWith Osgood, Frances Sargent Locke, 1811-1850 person
associatedWith Pabodie, William Jewett, 1813-1870. person
associatedWith Poe, Edgar Allan, 1809-1849 person
associatedWith Review Club (Providence, Rhode Island) corporateBody
associatedWith Ritchie, Anna Cora Ogden Mowatt, 1819-1873. person
associatedWith Sargent, Epes, 1813-1880. person
associatedWith Savage, James, 1784-1873. person
associatedWith Smith, Elizabeth Oakes Prince, 1806-1893. person
associatedWith Spencer, Anna Garlin, 1851-1931. person
associatedWith Stedman, Edmund Clarence, 1833-1908 person
associatedWith Stoddard, Richard Henry, 1825-1903 person
associatedWith Ticknor, Caroline, 1866-1937. person
associatedWith Ticknor, George, 1791-1871. person
associatedWith Uhland, Ludwig, 1787-1862. person
associatedWith Varner, John Grier, 1905-1978 person
associatedWith Wayland, M. Elizabeth Blodgett, d. 1860. person
associatedWith Whitin, Albert H., d.1937. person
associatedWith Wilde, Francesca, Lady. person
associatedWith W, S. person
associatedWith Wyman, Lillie Buffum Chace, 1847-1929. person
Place Name Admin Code Country
Providence RI US
Providence RI US
Subject
United States
Women authors
Autographs
Education of women
Genealogy
German poems
Negroes
Women poets
Spiritualism
Occupation
Women authors
Essayist
Poet
Scribe
Spiritualists
Transcendentalists
Activity

Person

Birth 1803-01-19

Death 1878-06-27

Female

Americans

English

Information

Permalink: http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gz5373

Ark ID: w6gz5373

SNAC ID: 85784219