Helen Adam

Helen Adam
Born	December 2, 1909 Glasgow, Scotland
Died	19 September 1993(1993-09-19) (aged 83) New York City, U.S
Education	Edinburgh University
Known for	Scottish poet, collagist and photographer Active participant in The San Francisco Renaissance
Notable work	The Elfin Pedlar and Tales Told by the Pixie Pool, 1923 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), 1977 Turn Again to Me and Other Poems, 1977 Gone Sailing, 1980 Songs with Music, 1982 The Bells of Dis, 1984 (With Auste Adam) Stone Cold Gothic, 1984. "San Francisco's Burning", 1985 A Helen Adam Reader. Edited with notes and an introduction by Kristin Prevallet, 2008.
Awards	1981 American Book Award

Helen Adam (December 2, 1909 in Glasgow, Scotland – September 19, 1993 in New York City) was a Scottish poet, collagist and photographer who was part of a literary movement contemporaneous to the Beat Generation 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.

From Kristin Prevallet: "In a dark forest, a woman in a white strapless evening gown is stiffly toppling into the arms of a gigantic tarantula. One of her arms is nestled comfortably between the spider's strong, hairy forearms, and she appears comfortable with the monstrosity that is cuddling her. In another scene two bats are attached to the sleeve of an elegant lady's gown, dangling as if a part of her ensemble. The society debutantes around her appear to be oblivious to the grotesque attachment. The lady does have a slightly uncomfortable expression on her face, but it is not the bats that are making her nervous. Rather, she is worried that her private passions will be discovered by the outside world. She reassures herself, "perhaps no one will notice them." As in all of the collages of Helen Adam, the true desires of women are fulfilled not by mortal men, but by highly charged encounters with unhuman beings.

Helen Adam, whom the poet Robert Duncan once referred to as "the extraordinary nurse of enchantment," was an active participant in The San Francisco Renaissance, a literary movement contemporaneous to the Beat Generation that occurred in San Francisco during the 1950s and 60s. Born in Scotland in 1909, Adam primarily wrote supernatural ballads which tell of fatal romances, darkly sadistic sexual affairs, jealous lovers, and vengeful demons. Her collages arise from these ballads, and animate what she called her "lethal women." She assembled the majority of her collages in the late 1950s, having been influenced by the procedures of the well-known collage artist and painter Jess who was also living in San Francisco during this time. Jess's collages are a myriad of images, fitted like pieces of a puzzle which come together to form one visionary grande-collage. Universes of tiny details and connections are assembled together, a process that reflects the palimpsistic layering of contemporary poetry as much as it does the found-object and assemblage movements that are central to modern art. When compared to Jess's collages, Adam's are strikingly simple. They combine two images—a beautiful man or woman, and a creature. And this combination results in an ironic playfulness that teases the viewer to wonder: are these collages a form of self-portrait, a projection of this woman's deep fears mingled with her repressed desire?"

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