the moon was a great egg born in blood, when I trampled my baby's face in the mud

these denton welch drawings are resting in the collection of the harry ransom center, austin texas. superficially seeming an ill-fit for such englishness. its nice though, to not have to travel to london or some other uk horror to see them. austin is hot and groovy and has the tastiest pancakes. the HRC is an incredible repository of cultural artifacts, well worth the walk.
denton welch would of course be a misfit no matter where he rests. thats the attraction.
my life is better for having been introduced to him by the late dieter schidor who wanted to make a film from 'a voice through a cloud', dw's final and only-slightly unfinished minor masterpiece. as you can see here his poetry sometimes lacked the brittle wit of his longer narratives and the incision of his drawing pen . i dont react strongly to his paintings. perhaps writers draw better than they paint.
most of his published work truly is worth reading. interesting that william burroughs was such a fan and dieter schidor, who went on to produce 'querelle' obsessively read every word dw wrote. pity his planned take on 'a voice through a cloud' never made it to the cinema







2 comments:

  1. Majorly KEWL post yo.
    Agree with ya about the paintings.
    Have been thinking lately of "In Youth Is Pleasure"... the title at least... hmm.
    Spooky... (but radd).

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  2. thanks birry..we seem to coincidate a lot huh?
    have you read 'in youth is pleasure'? i can send you a copy if you want. i think any of his titles could be pinched as idea for exhibitions..'a voice through a cloud' even at astretch..'i left my grandfather's house'
    a bit quiet on the poor wayfaring stranger front lately..what..do you have a new spring squeeze??
    ~xp

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