Anna Adams (1926 - 2011)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

English poet and artist. At the age of thirteen, Adams won a scholarship to Harrow School of Art, where she obtained the National Diploma in Design (NDD) in painting in 1945. At Harrow she met her future husband, the painter Norman Adams RA (1927-2005). They married on 18th January 1947. She continued to use her maiden name, Anna Theresa Butt, for her art work. She then studied sculpture at Hornsey College of Art, exhibiting in the Young Contemporaries show in London. By 1961, Adams had begun to write seriously in both prose and verse. Her first poem was printed in 1969. (A Journey Through Winter and Other Poems (Manchester Institute of Contemporary Art 1969). Her first book, A Reply to Intercepted Mail, was published by Peterloo Press in 1979. Some of her books included illustrations by her husband Norman Adams RA.