Comments on: Whatever Happened to Weldon Kees?

By: Mer

Mer — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 10:35:52 +0000

Fixxored. Thanks, Wray!

By: wrayb

wrayb — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 18:53:48 +0000

New to me, thank you!

the New Yorker link should be:

http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/07/04/050704crat_atlarge

By: James Shearhart

James Shearhart — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 18:30:25 +0000

Well done, Meredith! Excellent essay, and now my day is a wreck – I now gotta go find out all about this fella, and even as I do, I know I’ll be struggling with depression and inspiration in equal measure: This guy did everything, and I wanna be just like him, which means I too will all but vanish in obscurity, so why bother? The standard curse of the creative, I suppose….

Now, off to have my productivity siphoned off by teh internets!

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:29:49 +0000

I want to plant a big, wet one on you for posting this. I’ve always preferred the idea that he simply vanished from history south of the border, than he leaping from the Golden Gate.

By: Ben Morris

Ben Morris — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 08:05:33 +0000

Disappearances are eerily fascinating. I would like to think that Kees is in a secret bar hidden deep underground knocking back a couple drinks with Oscar Zeta Acosta and Ambrose Bierce. Somehow I doubt that though (especially as Bierce would be approaching 170 years old).

By: Mer

Mer — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 06:43:15 +0000

Dovanna, if you like Frank O’Hara, chances are (as you’ve read) quite good that you’ll enjoy Kees, although he’s less about irony, more about the yawning existential horrors.

D, Cravan had quite the pedigree and yielded a fantastic comic book conspiracy theory, that’s for sure! (Although I prefer my graphic novel conspiracy theories with way more footnotes.)

Skerror, rest assured I count myself to be among the poorest of rabble. Pass the Cheetos. Most of Kees’ closest friends seem to think he killed himself. While I personally love the stories of people who knew him swearing up and down to have seen him hanging out at bars in New Orleans, or in Mexico City, your guess is as good as mine. He’d be in his nineties now.

By: D

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 03:17:06 +0000

Also look up the disappearing Arthur Cravan.

A nice read, thank you. Just what I needed!

By: Dovanna

Dovanna — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 03:05:19 +0000

I’m a huge Frank O’Hara fan- “At the Movies With Weldon Kees and Frank O’Hara” was an interesting read. Now I’m curious to know more about Kees.

Great article!

By: Skerror

Skerror — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 02:12:43 +0000

“Kees isn’t too well known outside of a small, devout cult of literati who seem to want to keep his legacy a secret.”

Thanks for breaking the silence and letting us poor rabble into the circle ;) JK

Sounds like he’s got truly mad skills. I’ma definitely have to check him out further.

Wicked enigmatic ending! Hey Mer, do you think he went the suicide route or is it your feeling that this guy would be down for total life reinvention?