Scotland and the World: Edwin Morgan on Helen Adam

a blog by Richard Youngs
A book cover on brown paper. The title is San Francisco's burning"

The Mitchell Library’s Edwin Morgan Collection contains Morgan’s personal library, and tells the story of the poet’s diverse reading life. In among the science, history, travel and art texts are also novels and poetry texts including a selection of items by Glasgow-born poet Helen Adam (1909 - 1993).

Photograph of a woman wearing a headscarf. She is looking at the camera, sitting on some ornate railings or carvings.
Photograph of Helen Adam from Counting Out Rhyme (1972). Photograph by Robin Prising, shared with the kind permission of William Leo Coakley

The poet and collage artist Helen Adam was born in Glasgow in 1909. The daughter of a Presbyterian minister, she emigrated to America in 1939 where she became friends with Allen Ginsburg and other beat poets. Edwin Morgan was a big fan. In notes tucked inside the Mitchell Library’s copy of her Selected Poems & Ballads (1974) he referred to her as “unjustly forgotten” and he championed her work. In another enclosure he wrote: “her poetry is especially for voice, for performance, and her own command of audiences in America is well attested.”

A handwritten letter.

Dear Robert,

I was thinking over what you said about Helen Adam and 'kitsch'. I can see what you mean, but I don't really agree with it. I think you are reading with too cold an eye. Her poetry is especially for voice, for performance, and her own command of audiences in America is well attested. I tested it myself during the Edinburgh lecture, when I quoted liberally from her work. I found no awkwardness [ ] in doing this, and the audience was clearly receptive and even thrilled. I don't think kitsch would have worked in this way. Anyhow, them's my thoughts!

All the best,
Eddie

The Edinburgh Lecture

In his lecture on her work at the Edinburgh Book Festival in 1999, Edwin Morgan characterised Helen Adam's work as having been inspired by a move from Scotland to America, but he insisted that "she never lost touch with the oral tradition she grew up with". McMillan, D. (2019). “From Scotland to the World”: The Poetry of Hope Mirrlees, Helen Adam, Muriel Spark, and Veronica Forrest-Thomson. Humanities, 8(4), 184. 

The Mitchell Library’s Edwin Morgan Collection is the late Glasgow Poet Laureate’s personal library and includes many beautiful editions of Adams’ work. Among them are San Francisco’s Burning (1963), a theatre piece, and slimmer volumes on New York imprints such as Interim Books and Arcadia Press.

WITCHES RIDING SONG Ware, Haunt, awa! Ware, haunt, awa! Loup my steed, Stamp and speed, Gang till the green stars fa'. Carry me over tae Blokula, Tae the blessed meadow of Blokula. Follow the moon tae Blokula. Ware, haunt, awa! Come up Soloman, Javen, Dolovan, Drac, Santander, Pytho. Rear my stallion, Rush my darlin' one. Up my Tommy cat, go. Ware, haunt, awa! Hoof, and talon, and paw. Carry me over now. Carry me over now. Ware, haunt, awa!
Witches Riding Song poem and collage by Helen Adam. “Turn Again to Me and Other Poems,”. Poem courtesy of Kent State University Libraries. Special Collections and Archives. Collage Copyright © the Poetry Collection of the University Libraries, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York and used with permission.

Witches Riding Song

This poem, in a signed copy of Turn Again to Me & Other Poems is illustrated by a collage by the author.

Further Reading

Helen Adam in the Edwin Morgan Library.

Click on each title for the catalogue record. Please email specialcollections@glasgowlife.org.uk or call 0141 287 2988 to make an appointment to view these volumes.

Read more about Helen Adam, with this selected bibliography from Scottish Poetry Library. 

Find out more

To read these editions, or any other item in the Edwin Morgan Collection, please get in touch.
Special Collections