Whitman, Sarah Helen Power

▪ American writer and critic

née  Sarah Helen Power  

born Jan. 19, 1803, Providence, R.I., U.S.

died June 27, 1878, Providence

      American poet and essayist, noted for her literary criticism and perhaps best remembered for her alliance with and scholarly defense of Edgar Allan Poe (Poe, Edgar Allan).

      Sarah Power from an early age was an avid reader of novels and of poetry, especially that of Lord Byron. In 1828 she married John W. Whitman, a Boston writer and editor. Through his influence her first published poems appeared in the Boston Spectator and Ladies' Album under the signature Helen. In Boston she became acquainted with literary society and was exposed to the intellectual ferment of Unitarianism (Unitarianism and Universalism) and Transcendentalism. She was particularly interested in metaphysical notions and mesmerism.

      Whitman's poems appeared in Sarah J. Hale (Hale, Sarah Josepha)'s Ladies' Magazine and other periodicals, and, under the name Egeria, Whitman began publishing critical essays and articles on various topics of interest. After her husband's death in 1833 she returned to Providence. She continued to write and publish both prose and poetry and became Rhode Island's leading litterateur. In 1848 she published in the Home Journal of New York a playful (and anonymous) valentine poem to Edgar Allan Poe. After he learned the source of the compliment, he returned it in the second of his poems entitled “To Helen.” A feverishly romantic literary courtship ensued, and in November they became engaged. Partly owing to Poe's instability and partly through the intervention of Whitman's mother, the engagement was broken a month later.

      Whitman published a series of articles on spiritualism in the New York Tribune in 1851 and a volume of verse titled Hours of Life, and Other Poems in 1853. Spiritualism engaged Whitman's interest to the point that she held séances and was convinced of her ability to communicate with spirits. In 1860 she published Edgar Poe and His Critics, a scholarly reply to the scurrilous attacks of Rufus W. Griswold and other critics. She also interested herself in the cause of woman suffrage, serving as vice president of the Rhode Island suffrage association from its organization in 1868. A volume of her collected verse was posthumously published in 1879 as Poems.

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