Kay-Scott, C., b. 1879. | Tulane University Special Collections

Name: Kay-Scott, C., b. 1879.

Variant Name: Frederick Creighton Wellman, Richard Irving Carson.

Historical Note: Frederick Creighton Wellman (1871-1960) was a doctor of tropical medicine, scientist, administrator, artist, educator, spy, writer, and engineer. Writing under the pen names Cyril Kay-Scott and Richard Irving Carson, Wellman composed plays, novels, short stories, and poems. Already on his second marriage and with four children, Wellman eloped with writer Elsie Dunn (1893-1963). They fled to London and changed their names to Cyril Kay-Scott and Evelyn Scott. Arrangements were made with the British Museum for Wellman to collect entomological specimens in Latin America after realizing that the couple might be discovered in England. In Brazil, Wellman was unable to carry out his collection of specimens as planned and eventually ended up working for the Singer Sewing Machine store, where he was promoted to auditor and then superintendent, requiring the couple to move to Natal. There, the couple's only child, Creighton Scott was born in 1914. Wellman moved the family Cercadinho, Brazil, to become a rancher. Here the couple began to write both poetry and prose. Wellman returned to America with Creighton in 1928, the same year he filed for divorce from Evelyn, and decided to pursue a career as an art teacher, setting up an art school in Santa Fe, New Mexico. In 1931, he gave up running the art school and became director of the Denver Art Museum. He retired from that post in 1934. Wellman worked for a time with his son on a Works Progress Administration project, but soon after settled into retirement. In 1943, his autobiography, Life Is Too Short, was published.

Sources: Manuscripts Collection 793

Note Author: LAC Group

Records or Manuscript Collections Created by Kay-Scott, C., b. 1879.