Timothy McSweeney

Joyelle's uncle, Timothy McSweeney, whose name was used for the journal McSweeney's died on January 24th. Joyelle's brother Ross wrote a little note about his passing which is now up on the McSweeney's website.

Timothy had a tough life (gay in the wrong time and place, schizophrenic, at times homeless) and I feel the whole McSweeney's thing is a little strange but I know Joyelle's family appreciate it because in some ways it allowed Timothy to be an artist, which he was not quite able to be in real life; he was a promising artist but in a fit of rage in the 1960s burned all his work except for two pieces. After that he started a big mail-art campaign aimed at finding his real family and that's how Dave Eggers first came across his name.