Status Updates From Finding Everett Ruess: The ...

" ... I would rent a little garret on some city hilltop, and have a place all my own. From it I would sally forth to make color studies of tropical fish in the park, to concerts, to library expeditions, and devil may care wanderings in the city and on the sea front."

"Give me some advice, tell me my faults, my virtures, if any, open up your heart, and write lengthily if you love me." [to Bill Jacobs]

"While there is life, there is hope. I still think at times that the future may hold happiness."

"I felt futile. It seems after all that a solitary life is not good.I wish I could experience a great love. I find that I cannot consider working, even in art. To be a real artist one must work incessantly, and I have not the vitality."

"If you send all the things I have mentioned you will be doing very well indeed."

"If you are going to send any money in April, right now is the time to send it." "Other things you might send ..."

And we are left to speculate whether, had he lived as long as Muir, Everett Ruess might be acclaimed today as the artist and writer who, more than any other American, championed the quest for beauty for its own sake as he pursued an insatiable solo vagabondage through the landscapes of his heart's content.

None of Everett's predecessor's or potential role models, however, launched their wandering careers at anything like the early age of sixteen.

None of Everett's predecessor's or potential role models, however, launched their wandering careers at anything like the early age of sixteen.

... the two renowned American lovers of the outdoors who most closely prefigure Everett Ruess are Henry David Thoreau and John Muir.

In the chronicles of American history, a quest such as the one Everett Ruess had launched in the Southwest in 1931 was virtually unique. Few vagabonds before him had attempted anything comparable.

"I have some good friends here, but one who really understands why I am here or what I do. I don't know of anyone, though, who would have more than a partial understanding. I have gone too far alone." -Everett Ruess
Not sure I understand either Everett...