Helen Adam was a Scottish-American poet, born in 1909 in Glasgow. She, her sister and mother moved to the United States in 1939; what started out as a family trip then became a permanent establishment as World War II broke out. They first lived in New York and eventually settled in California in 1949. After arriving in California, she began to take workshops with Robert Duncan in the 1950s, which allowed her poetry to mature and be introduced to an audience for the first time.

Following this, she became a part of the San Francisco Renaissance, a poetry movement during the ‘50s and ‘60s, and came to be well known for her unique oral performance style. With the success of her play, San Francisco’s Burning, published in 1967, she and her sister moved back to New York. There, Helen became an influence for the Beat poets due to her lyrical and oral stylings. She lived in New York for the rest of life, dying in 1993 at the age of 83. 

Her poetic style was defined by her ballads and mystical and romantic lyricism. Her book, Turn Again to Me and Other Poems, was published in 1977. The cover art she created was also influenced by these mystical themes. Turn Again to Me and Other Poems won the American Book Award in 1981. 

Kent State University Libraries holds some of Adam’s personal papers along with examples of her printed works.

--Guest Curator, Naidi Valverde-Romero, 2021-2022 OhioLINK Luminaries Student