“Helen Adam marched through her life to the beat of her own drum”
—Kristin Prevallet
Helen Adam (1909–1993) – fey child prodigy (published by Faber & Faber at 14) & daughter of the manse; bardic matriarch of the San Francisco Beats; Worm Queen – was born #OTD, 2 Dec.
A 🎂🧵
1/7
https://caesuramag.org/posts/kristin-prevallet-poems-by-helen-adam
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #gothic #supernatural #ballads #SanFrancisco #BeatPoets #poetry
“The story of Helen Adam is a tumble down the rabbit hole… Helen brought witchcraft, horror ballads and camp attitude into the beatnik scene in San Francisco, to the dirty punk New York of the 70s and the queer Berlin of the 80s”
Helen Adam: Daydream of Darkness is a forthcoming documentary. Watch the trailer:
2/7
https://www.pickypictures.se/adaydreamofdarkness
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #gothic #supernatural #ballads #SanFrancisco #BeatPoets #NewYork #punk #Berlin #queer #poetry
“She was a poet out of time, stretched. Out of a dark visceral realm. Every cell of her body wrote ballads, every cell of her body chanted them… She could scare the pants off God”
—Alexia Marmara, “Helen Adam & the Grue: Collage, Rhyme, & the Occult Imagination”
3/7
https://awomensthing.org/blog/helen-adam/
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #gothic #supernatural #poetry #ballads #SanFrancisco #BeatPoets #poetry #collage #visualart
“Adam’s embrace of the supernatural… is made relevant to a contemporary struggle over gender inequalities”
—Cindy McMann, “Helen Adam & the Feminist Gothic Imagination”, IRISH JOURNAL OF GOTHIC & HORROR STUDIES 6, July 2009
4/7
https://irishgothicjournal.net/issue6/
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #gothic #supernatural #ballads #SanFrancisco #BeatPoets #poetry
“Helen Adam is a poet’s poet, for it is in her own tribe that she has been most read and praised, despite her long history of public readings”
—Norman Finkelstein, in his chapter on Helen Adam in TO GO INTO THE WOODS (University of Michigan Press, 2023)
5/7
https://press.umich.edu/Books/T/To-Go-Into-the-Words2
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #gothic #supernatural #ballads #SanFrancisco #BeatPoets #poetry
In a house by a river that lamented as it ran,
Lived a father, and his daughter, and the dog-headed man…
—Helen Adam, “A Tale Best Forgotten”
from TO GO INTO THE WOODS, by Norman Finkelstein (University of Michigan Press, 2023)
6/7
https://press.umich.edu/Books/T/To-Go-Into-the-Words2
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #gothic #supernatural #ballads #SanFrancisco #BeatPoets #poetry
“When I write I am not thinking of an audience. I just sort of get caught up in the ballad... to me poetry is a terrific force. If you don't write for its own sake, you are not a writer.”
Five poems being read by Helen Adam
7/7
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=re0m3bskuVk
#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #gothic #supernatural #ballads #SanFrancisco #BeatPoets #poetry
Assoc for Scottish Literature
