Green Fire in the Forest of Deep Memory: Strange Collages from a Cherished Friendship

by NICHOLAS MICHALSKI

The poetry of Helen Adam (1909-1993) is mysterious and lively, combining folktales and paranormal influences with the rollicking ballad poetry of her native Scotland. Adam is also increasingly recognized for her visual art, including multiple-exposure photographs and magazine-cutout collages often made in collaboration with her sister Pat. Thanks to the generosity of donor Robert Kashey, UB's Poetry Collection is celebrating an exciting new addition to its Helen Adam collection: Green Fire in the Forest, a one-of-a-kind collage portfolio that Adam gave Kashey and his first wife as a wedding present in 1966. This gift was a rare honor, though not unprecedented, as Adam gave custom collage portfolios to close friends on other occasions, including Robert Duncan for his birthday in 1957 and Robert Hershon and Donna Brook for their wedding in 1982.

Green Fire in the Forest contains 61 pages of colored construction paper with magazine-cutout collages and handwritten poetry, some double-sided. The collages present surreal combinations of human and animal life against a dizzying backdrop of art, history and nature. Fittingly for a wedding present, the text takes the union of man and woman as its point of departure and weaves through galaxies and centuries—from ancient Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon and Victorian England to “the beasts of the zodiac,” “the fingers of Nothingness” and “the oldest of Dragons”—to craft a universe of its own.

UB’s Helen Adam collection was built over decades, including a major donation from Adam herself in 1985. It contains over 140 boxes of manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, collages, scrapbooks, artwork and personal effects. The Poetry Collection also holds Adam's personal library of nearly 700 books on art, literature, fairy tales, ghost stories and the occult.

In 1964, Helen and Pat Adam relocated from San Francisco to New York City, hoping to produce their ballad opera “San Francisco’s Burning” off-Broadway. Theater also brought together art gallerist Robert Kashey and the inseparable Adam sisters. Specifically, it was the theater at Caffe Cino, a pioneering experimental gay venue founded by Buffalo’s own Joe Cino and often credited with launching the off-off-Broadway movement. This meeting launched a decades-long friendship. Kashey fondly recalls visiting the Adams’ humble apartment, where Pat would cook sumptuous dinners and the visions Helen spied in her agates would inspire her poetry. Afterwards, Helen might be moved to read tarot cards for her guests. However, Kashey says he was never served the sisters’ trademark appetizer: celery with peanut butter.

The Adam sisters lived together their whole lives, financially poor but rich in life, with wardrobes and furnishings cobbled together from thrift stores. After Pat’s death in 1987, Helen struggled to care for herself and mostly stopped accepting friends’ visits. During this period, Kashey recalls seeing a disheveled Adam on the steps of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Despite Robert and his second wife Elisabeth’s repeated attempts, Adam refused to see her longtime friends the Kasheys. The Kasheys deeply treasure their friendship with the Adams to this day, but the collages themselves have never been exhibited or known to scholars until now. Knowing their worth, Robert Kashey donated them to the Poetry Collection, where they join so many of Adam’s other creations and belongings.

The Poetry Collection is thrilled to welcome these captivating collages to their new home for generations of scholars, students and the general public to appreciate. Those interested in being among the first to enjoy Green Fire in the Forest are welcome to make an appointment. The new collages are now included in an updated online finding aid for the Helen Adam collection.