Where's Weldon?

The poet Weldon Kees was born in Beatrice, Neb., in 1914, though what's best known about him is that on July 18, 1955, his car was found abandoned with the keys still in the ignition in a parking lot on the Marin County side of the Golden Gate Bridge. Kees had often spoken of killing himself and had once planned, with James Agee, to write a book on famous suicides; together they came up with a wonderful title, "How-Not-To-and-Why-Not-To-Do-It," though the project came to nothing. Both men were too busy plotting their own deaths.

By Richard Rayner

August 17, 2008