Weldon Kees

Weldon Kees
Born
Harry Weldon Kees

(1914-02-24)February 24, 1914
DisappearedJuly 18, 1955
Marin County, California, U.S.
StatusMissing for 69 years, 3 months and 26 days
Alma materUniversity of Nebraska (BA)
University of Denver (MS)
Occupations
  • Poet
  • painter
  • musician
  • filmmaker
Years active1934–1955
Known forThe Collected Poems of Weldon Kees, Fall Quarter, The Ceremony and other stories
MovementAmerican poetry, Beat Generation
SpouseAnn (sep. 1954)

Harry Weldon Kees (February 24, 1914 – disappeared July 18, 1955) was an American poet, painter, literary critic, novelist, playwright, jazz pianist, short story writer, and filmmaker. Despite his brief career, Kees is considered an important mid-twentieth-century poet of the Beat generation, and peer of John Berryman, Elizabeth Bishop, and Robert Lowell. His work has been immensely influential on subsequent generations of poets writing in English and other languages and his collected poems have been included in many anthologies. Harold Bloom lists the publication of Kees's first book The Last Man (1943) as an important event in the chronology of his textbook Modern American Poetry as well as a book worthy of his Western Canon.