# Sam Abrams

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Not to be confused with the poet [D. Sam Abrams](/source/D._Sam_Abrams).

**Sam Abrams** (1935–2023) was an American poet, classicist, teacher and activist. A "favorite poet" of fellow poet [Thomas E. Weatherly Jr.](/source/Thomas_E._Weatherly_Jr.), Abrams was described as writing the:

[P]oems too of a classicist, on familiar terms with [Sappho](/source/Sappho), [Archilochus](/source/Archilochus), [Horace](/source/Horace), [Socrates](/source/Socrates) regulars in the audience along with [Miles](/source/Miles_Davis), [Billie](/source/Billie_Holiday), [Bessie](/source/Bessie_Smith), [Woody](/source/Woody_Guthrie) hard listeners for poems that are [bluesy](/source/Blues), [bopsy](/source/Bebop), [beat](/source/Beat_Generation). [Whitmanesque](/source/Walt_Whitman), funny, generous, passionately committed, intellectually rigorous ... in-your-face poems, that can only . . . be read aloud.
Sometimes described as "postbeat," Abrams was an original workshop leader at the [Poetry Project](/source/Poetry_Project) at [St. Mark's Church](/source/St._Mark's_Church_in-the-Bowery) in New York City and a [Fulbright](/source/Fulbright_Program) professor of American literature at the [University of Athens](/source/National_and_Kapodistrian_University_of_Athens), Greece.[1][2] In addition to authoring several books and serving as both editor and critic, Abrams "regularly published for over 40 years in numerous journals and anthologies, including *the Paris Review,* the University of Iowa's *Walt Whitman Quarterly Review* and a chaplet of eight poems for the *[Backwood Broadsides](https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/11676)* series."[3][4][5]

*A Journal of Letters and Life* described Abrams as an "unrepentant revolutionary and classics professor." A patriot who believed in both "[flag etiquette](/source/Flag_protocol)" and [civil disobedience](/source/Civil_disobedience), Abrams also owned an off-the-rack [DEA](/source/Drug_Enforcement_Administration) jacket, published a book of poetry about [pot](/source/Cannabis_(drug)), and participated in the 1967 [Angry Arts Week](/source/Angry_Arts_Week) alongside 600 New York artists.[2][6][7][8] In 2008, more than 40 years later, poets [Ed Sanders](/source/Ed_Sanders), [Anne Waldman](/source/Anne_Waldman) and [Amiri Baraka](/source/Amiri_Baraka) celebrated him with the book *Uncensored Songs: A tribute to Sam Abrams*.

## Academic career

In 1958, Abrams launched his academic career at [Drew University](/source/Drew_University) in Madison, NJ as both instructor and the head of the classics department.[2] After his position as a Distinguished Visiting Fulbright Professor ended, Abrams was hired to teach for the Department of Language and Literature at the [Rochester Institute of Technology](/source/Rochester_Institute_of_Technology) (RIT) in 1978.[2][9] A long-time member of [Rochester Poets](/source/Rochester_Poets), Abrams founded the "literary journal *Signatures* in 1986, and convinced [Allen Ginsberg](/source/Allen_Ginsberg), [Gary Snyder](/source/Gary_Snyder) and [Ted Turner](/source/Ted_Turner) to visit and speak on campus."[2][7] In 2005, he retired and was named a professor emeritus.[2]

## Bibliography

- *Barbara*. Ferry Press, 1966. ASIN: B000UG33B2
- *The Neglected Walt Whitman: Vital Texts* ed. Sam Abrams. Four Walls Eight Windows, 1993. (Sixty-five poems, fragments, and three prose pieces by Whitman.) ISBN 978-0941423908
- *The Old Pothead Poems*. Creative Arts Book Co., 2003. ISBN 978-0887394805
- *The Post-American Cultural Congress.* Bobbs-Merrill, 1974. ISBN 978-0672512506
- *Book of Days.* Dedicated to Black Mountain poet and translator [Paul Blackburn](/source/Paul_Blackburn_(poet)), and archived in the [Paul Blackburn Tape Collection](https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/object/bb8433025k/_3_1.pdf) at the Library UC San Diego.

## Education

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Abrams attended the [James Madison High School](/source/James_Madison_High_School_(Brooklyn)), was graduated with an A.B. from [Brooklyn College](/source/Brooklyn_College) and earned an M.A. from the [University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign](/source/University_of_Illinois_at_Urbana%E2%80%93Champaign).[2]

## Personal

Married to fellow New Yorker Barbara, the couple had two sons and two grandchildren.[2] With the exception of a few years in New Hampshire, Abrams and his family lived in Rochester, New York, and spent two decades splitting their time between New York and Chania, Crete.[2] Predeceased by his wife, Abrams died in the fall of 2023.

## References

1. ["Chronology"](http://www.poetspath.com/Scholarship_Project/Postbeat%20Poets%20Chronology%20of%20Major%20Works.htm). *www.poetspath.com*. Retrieved 2025-05-07.

1. ["Collection: Sam Abrams personal papers | RIT's Distinctive Collections"](https://archivesspace.rit.edu/repositories/2/resources/1075). *archivesspace.rit.edu*. Retrieved 2025-05-07.

1. ["Sam Abrams"](https://www.theparisreview.org/authors/5480/sam-abrams). *The Paris Review*. Retrieved 2025-05-07.

1. ["Poetry at Compendium Books - Athens English Language Poetry Readings Series"](https://www.translatum.gr/poetry/society/archive/15nov01.htm). *www.translatum.gr*. [Archived](https://web.archive.org/web/20120716103558/http://translatum.gr/poetry/society/archive/15nov01.htm) 2012-07-16 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 2025-05-07.

1. Martin, Robert K. “Grünzweig, Walter. Walt Whitmann: Die Deutschsprachige Rezeption Als Interkulturelles Phänomen [Review].” *Walt Whitman Quarterly Review*, vol. 11, no. 2, 1 Oct. 1993, pp. 82–84, whitmanarchive.org/criticism/wwqr/pdf/anc.00676.pdf, https://doi.org/10.13008/2153-3695.1399. Accessed 7 May 2025.

1. Frisch, Kevin. ["Grand Old Reminders"](https://www.democratandchronicle.com/story/opinion/blogs/editorial/2013/07/03/grand-old-reminders/2486319/). *Democrat and Chronicle*. Retrieved 2025-05-07.

1. dkramer3@naz.edu (2018-12-22). [""Man's experience with marijuana had no negative effects" - Democrat and Chronicle, December 22nd, 2018"](https://talkerofthetown.com/2018/12/22/mans-experiences-with-marijuana-has-no-negative-effects-sam-abrams-d-c-december-22nd-2018/). *Talker of the Town*. Retrieved 2025-05-07.

1. Democrat and Chronicle. *Agents Put the Collar on Visitor’s Jacket*. 6 May 1992.

1. Waltzer, Debbie (2005-12-16). ["Eclectic mix of residents acts as magnet for neighborhood"](https://rbj.net/2005/12/16/eclectic-mix-of-residents-acts-as-magnet-for-neighborhood/). *Rochester Business Journal*. Retrieved 2025-05-08.

## External links

- Chuck Stein and Sam Abrams: [Poetry reading](https://calisphere.org/item/ark:/20775/bb8433025k/)
- *heaven on earth, For This Thanks*: [Poetry reading](https://mag.rochester.edu/walk/poets-walk/heaven-on-earth)
- [Sam Abrams: *The Purpose*](http://www.bigbridge.org/issue5/po_sabrams.htm): [*When I Consider*](http://www.poetspath.com/napalm/nhs12/Abrams2.htm)
- Archives: [Sam Abrams' personal papers](https://archivesspace.rit.edu/repositories/2/resources/1075)
- [Ed Sanders](/source/Ed_Sanders)' Papers in the Philadelphia Area Archives: [Sam Abrams, 1987-1991](https://findingaids.library.upenn.edu/records/PRIN_MUDD_C1703)

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