Before he vanished in the fog of San Francisco, Weldon Kees (1914–55) was a poet, storyteller, critic, painter, musician, and filmmaker. What remains is a body of work and a large collection of letters that shed light on Kees’s complex personality. Robert E. Knoll traces the odyssey of a Nebraska boy who made his way in a fiercely competitive national scene, befriending the movers and shakers of the art worlds on both coasts. Kees’s letters—satirical, witty, poetic, gossipy, intensely individual—provide the feel of lives being lived, of a career going forth, and finally, of the darkness that engulfed him when, in Knoll's phrase, he was "ten minutes from triumph."

Robert E. Knoll is D. B. and Paula Varner Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. He is the author of Conversations with Wright Morris: Critical Views and Responses (Nebraska 1977).

"Tender and vulnerable, aggressive and ambitious, above all, finely attuned to the best art of its time, Kees's letters are remarkable documents both of a life and of two decades of the life of art."—Journal of Modern Literature

"A smoothly edited and beautifully produced collection of Weldon Kees's evocative letters. . . . The letters are so compelling as to make this book a delight for those without any prior knowledge of or interest in Kees as an artist."”—Prairie Schooner

"Those who don't know about Kees will be surprised and impressed."—American Literature

"Editor Robert Knoll provides a biographical sketch and commentary between the letters, placing each in context. From it we get a clearer understanding of Kees's thoughts and opinions, the breadth of his intellect."—Nebraska Life