
Disappeared poet Weldon Kees surfaces in San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation collection
Weldon Kees was unknown to me when I started processing the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation collection about three months ago. In photographs, Kees has dark hair combed neatly to one side, a matching moustache, and an intense gaze. He was most often photographed wearing a tweed suit with a sweater vest and tie and holding a cigarette. He dabbled in a number of things (among them: Communism, novel-writing, Abstract Expressionist painting, psychotherapy) but, over time, it has become clear that Kees best made a name for himself through poetry.