Helen Adam
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Helen Adam (December 2, 1909 in
Glasgow, Scotland Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
– September 19, 1993 in
New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...
) was a
Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...
poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...
, collagist and
photographer A photographer (the Greek φῶς (''phos''), meaning "light", and γραφή (''graphê''), meaning "drawing, writing", together meaning "drawing with light") is a person who uses a camera to make photographs. Duties and types of photograp ...
who was part of a literary movement contemporaneous to the
Beat Generation The Beat Generation was a literary subculture movement started by a group of authors whose work explored and influenced American culture and politics in the post-World War II era. The bulk of their work was published and popularized by members o ...
that occurred in San Francisco during the 1950s and 1960s. Though often associated with the Beat poets, she would more accurately be considered one of the predecessors of the Beat Generation.


Life

Adam's first book of poetry, ''The Elfin Pedlar and Tales Told by the Pixie Pool'', was published in 1923, when she was 14 years old. The collection was in the Victorian
genre Genre () is any style or form of communication in any mode (written, spoken, digital, artistic, etc.) with socially agreed-upon conventions developed over time. In popular usage, it normally describes a category of literature, music, or other fo ...
of
light verse Light poetry or light verse is poetry that attempts to be humorous. Light poems are usually brief, can be on a frivolous or serious subject, and often feature word play including puns, adventurous rhyme, and heavy alliteration. Nonsense poetry i ...
about
fairies A fairy (also called fay, fae, fae folk, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, generally described as anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic, found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Cel ...
and other
pastoral The pastoral genre of literature, art, or music depicts an idealised form of the shepherd's lifestyle – herding livestock around open areas of land according to the seasons and the changing availability of water and pasture. The target au ...
subjects. Her early books were well known and reviewed; the composer Sir Charles Villiers Stanford set selections from ''The Elfin Pedlar'' to orchestral music, and performed them widely. Adam attended the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
for two years as a non-matriculated student, after which she worked as a
journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...
in
London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
. In 1939 she moved to the United States and eventually moved to San Francisco. In San Francisco she worked with such influential poets as
Allen Ginsberg Irwin Allen Ginsberg (; June 3, 1926 – April 5, 1997) was an American poet and writer. As a student at Columbia University in the 1940s, he began friendships with Lucien Carr, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, forming the core of th ...
and Robert Duncan. Adam also developed her first theater piece, 'San Francisco's Burning', a play with music, as well as unique visual designs & curtain by the San Francisco artist Gary Swartzburg, who worked with her on various theater projects prior to her moving to New York. One of the oldest of the poets in the ''
San Francisco Renaissance The term San Francisco Renaissance is used as a global designation for a range of poetic activity centered on San Francisco, which brought it to prominence as a hub of the American poetry avant-garde in the 1950s. However, others (e.g., Alan Watt ...
'', she worked closely with Duncan, Jess, Madeline Gleason, and
Jack Spicer Jack Spicer (January 30, 1925 – August 17, 1965) was an American poet often identified with the San Francisco Renaissance. In 2009, ''My Vocabulary Did This to Me: The Collected Poetry of Jack Spicer'' won the American Book Award for poetry. ...
, among others. She also encouraged many of the Beat poets as they began to explore performance and writing as an art form. While her continued use of the
ballad A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of the popular poetry and song of Great Britain and Ireland from the Late Middle Ages until the 19th century. They were widely used across Eur ...
form "mystified" many of the poets more associated with the movement, the "magic and knowledge she brought to San Francisco startled the young wild sages of its Renaissance with a special kind of madness." Robert Duncan once referred to Adam as "the extraordinary nurse of enchantment." Helen Adam and her sister Pat collaborated on a ballad opera entitled ''San Francisco's Burning'' which was published in 1963 and reissued in 1985 with score by Al Carmines and drawings by Jess. Writer and friend
Samuel R. Delany Samuel R. "Chip" Delany (, ; born April 1, 1942) is an American writer and literary critic. His work includes fiction (especially science fiction), memoir, criticism, and essays on science fiction, literature, sexual orientation, sexuality, and ...
describes how the sisters took on the task of writing lyrics for different songs. A collection of her poems was collected in a work titled ''Selected Poems and Ballads''. She was one of only four women whose work was included in Donald Allen's landmark anthology, The New American Poetry 1945-1960 (1960). Adam also appeared in several films: "Flotsum", a 45-minute art film done in San Francisco by her friend, the artist Gary Swartzburg, '' Poetry in Motion'' by
Ron Mann Ronald Mann (born June 13, 1958) is a Canadians, Canadian documentary film film director, director. His work includes the films ''Imagine the Sound'' (1981); ''Comic Book Confidential'' (1988); ''Grass (1999 film), Grass'' (1999) and ''Go Furt ...
, ''Death'' and ''Our Corpses Speak'' by German experimental film maker
Rosa von Praunheim Holger Bernhard Bruno Mischwitzky (born Holger Radtke; 25 November 1942), known professionally as Rosa von Praunheim, is a German film director, author, producer, professor of directing and one of the most influential and famous LGBT social move ...
. Her papers are held at
University at Buffalo, The State University of New York The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public university, public research university in Buffalo, New York, Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. ...
, and
Kent State University Kent State University (KSU) is a Public university, public research university in Kent, Ohio, United States. The university includes seven regional campuses in Northeast Ohio located in Kent State University at Ashtabula, Ashtabula, Kent State ...
. Following the death of her sister in the 1980s, Adam disappeared from public view, dying in Brooklyn, New York, in September 1993.


Awards

* 1981
American Book Award The American Book Awards are an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "t ...


Poem

An example of Helen Adam's verse with its striking use of language is "Margaretta's Rime":


Collages

Adam made a series of collages in the 1950s, influenced by San Francisco artist Jess. Of the work, Kristin Prevallet said that "the true desires of women are fulfilled not by mortal men, but by highly charged encounters with unhuman beings."


Selected publications

* ''The Elfin Pedlar and Tales Told by the Pixie Pool'', New York, London, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1924. * ''Charms and Dreams from the Elfin Pedlar's Pack'', 1924 * ''Shadow of the Moon'', 1929 * ''The Queen O' Crow Castle'', 1958 * ''Ballads'', 1964 * ''Counting Out Rhyme'', 1972 * ''Selected Poems and Ballads'', 1974 * ''Ghosts and Grinning Shadows'' (a collection of short stories), Hanging Loose Press, 1977 * ''Turn Again to Me and Other Poems'', Kulchur Foundation, 1977. * ''Gone Sailing'', West Branch, Iowa: Toothpaste Press, 1980. , * ''Songs with Music'', 1982 * ''The Bells of Dis'', Coffee House Press, 1985. , * (With Auste Adam) ''Stone Cold Gothic'', N.Y., N.Y. : Kulchur Foundation, 1984. , * "San Francisco's Burning", 1985; Brooklyn Hanging Loose Press, 1999. , * ''A Helen Adam Reader''. Edited with notes and an introduction by Kristin Prevallet, Orono : National Poetry Foundation, 2007. ,


References


External links


Helen Adam Author Page at Electronic Poetry Center
includes extensive links to online works and biography

essay by Kristin Prevallet
"The Reluctant Pixie Poole", ''A Recovery of Helen Adam's San Francisco Years'', Kristin Prevallet, 1995Helen Adam Artwork (collages)
from the University at Buffalo Libraries {{DEFAULTSORT:Adam, Helen 1909 births 1993 deaths 20th-century American poets 20th-century American women writers 20th-century Scottish poets 20th-century Scottish women writers Alumni of the University of Edinburgh American Book Award winners American women poets Scottish emigrants to the United States Writers from Glasgow Writers from the San Francisco Bay Area