Dr. James Alfred "Jim" Helten was born in Devils Lake, North Dakota, on June 8, 1949 to parents Raymond and Agatha Helten. He graduated from St. Mary's High School in 1967 and went on to earn his BA (1971), MA (1974) and PhD (1985) in English from the University of North Dakota. His doctoral thesis, "Do What the Spirit Say Do: John Beecher and his Poetry" examines the aesthetics and politics of American poet and activist John Beecher. In 1976 Helten married Susan "Sue" Keogh.

Helten taught English at Lake Region Jr. College in Devils Lake, the University of North Dakota, Auburn University, and Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville, North Carolina, before returning to North Dakota to settle in West Fargo. Helten died October 14, 2018.

John Henry Newman Beecher (1904-1980) was an American poet, professor, and activist involved in the labor and civil rights movements. In 1907, his parents, Leonard Thurlow Beecher and Isabel Garghill Beecher, moved the family from New York City to Birmingham, Alabama, where Leonard was an executive in the Tennessee Coal, Iron and Railroad Company (TCI). Beecher began working in TCI's mills after he graduated from high school at age 14, an experience that informed his later writing and life's work.

He attended many different universities, but frequently returned to Birmingham to work in the steel mills. Beecher earned a BA from the University of Alabama in 1924 and an MA from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 1930. He then studied sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he researched the Sharecropper's Union of Alabama. In 1933 he published "Report to the Stock Holders," a poem about the working conditions and treatment of mill workers. Between 1934 and 1942, Beecher worked as an administrator for various New Deal programs in the South. In 1943, he volunteered to serve on the SS Booker T Washington, the first racially integrated ship in the U.S. Navy. Following his discharge in 1945, he published All Brave Sailors, an account of his experiences.

Between 1948 and 1950, Beecher taught sociology at San Francisco State College, until he was dismissed for refusing to sign a loyalty oath under the Levering Act. He began ranching in California and in 1956 Beecher and his fourth wife, Barbara Marie Scholz Beecher (1925-2016), established Morning Star Press. Morning star published editions of his poetry with Barbara's artwork. In 1958, the Beechers relocated to Arizona, where John taught at Arizona State University, and renamed their press 'Rampart Press.'

From 1964 through 1965, Beecher worked as a journalist covering the civil rights movement as a correspondent for The San Francisco Chronicle and Ramparts Magazine. In 1966 he returned to Birmingham to teach creative writing at Miles College, where he published To Live and Die in Dixie. Beecher's poetry grew in popularity during the 1970s, and he made frequent public appearances.

In 1977, following the overturn of the Levering Act as unconstitutional, he was reinstated at San Francisco State College. Beecher died on May 11, 1980 of lung disease. He published a dozen volumes of poetry and nonfiction during his life, and wrote additional works that were released posthumously or remain unpublished.

Sources:

"John Beecher Biography." Modern American Poetry Site. 1999-2014; accessed May 24, 2019. http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/beecher/bio.htm .

Dickson, Foster. "John Beecher." Encyclopedia of Alabama. Last modified April 24, 2015. http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/article/h-2068 .

"Jim Helten" [obituary]. Devils Lake Journal (ND), October 26, 2018.