Craft: Helen Adam

Helen Adam (1909-1993) was a now mostly forgotten poet of the San Francisco Renaissance. She was a student of Robert Duncan’s and in 1957 formed her poetry performance group called The Maidens, which included Duncan, Madeline Gleason, and James Broughton. Her fans included Richard Howard, Anne Waldman, Charles Bernstein, and W.H. Auden.

Helen Adam times nine in 1955

Adam is known mainly for her ballads, which she performed with her native Scottish accent. Annie Finch, in the introduction to the book Sing Doun the Mune, says she first heard Adam perform at a packed St. Mark’s Church in 1983 when Finch was 26 and Adam was 74:

I could hardly believe this small, fierce woman, taking the stage after a parade of poets who appeared mostly male, mostly white, and mostly twice her height. Undaunted and unforgettable, she recited her incantational words in a strong and defiant Scottish accent. Who on earth was she?