John Henry Ingram

Interest in the life and work of Edgar Poe was part of Ingram's childhood; in his adulthood it became his obsession. By his statement, he spent sixty-two years writing about Poe and collecting Poe materials. We can be sure he spent as many as fifty- three, for he published a poem called "Hope: An Allegory," written in imitation of Poe's "Ulalume," in 1863, and in the month before he died he published a tart note, setting the record straight about Dr. Bransby's school at Stoke Newington. He filled the intervening years with almost ceaseless attention to Poe: he wrote two biographies, several Memoirs, more than fifty magazine articles, as well as Prefaces and Introductions to writings on Poe by others, and he published and republished Poe's tales, poems, and essays in eight separate editions. During these years he carried on bitter warfare in print with almost every person who wrote about Poe anywhere, especially if the writer was an American, for John Ingram secretly regarded himself as the sole redeemer of Poe's besmirched personal reputation and as the person most responsible for Poe's renewed, world-wide literary reputation.
"John Henry Ingram: Editor, Biographer, and Collector of Poe Materials" by John Carl Miller at the University of Virginia Library


The J.H. Ingram Collection at UVA
Works by Ingram at The Online Books Page