Harry Weldon Kees

(1914-1955) born at Beatrice, lived in Lincoln. Poet, journalist, painter, considered the most underread poet of his generation, has been compared to Edward Arlington Robinson; published three volumes of poetry, 57 critical reviews in magazines such as Time and New Republic, 14 short stories, including one reprinted in Best Short Stories of 1941, and engaged in abstract expressionist painting; regarded by some as an academic cult figure for his mysterious disappearance. Consult Crowell's Handbook of Contemporary American Poetry (1973) 155-157 and American Literary History, Vol 1 (Winter 1989) 816-852 and Beatrice Daily Sun, January 16, 1993, p. 1 and American National Biography, Vol 12 (1999) 450-451 and James Reidel, Vanished Act: The Life and Art of Weldon Kees (University of Nebraska Press, 2003).

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