Jonathan Bayliss

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Jonathan Bayliss (born September 7, 1926 in Arlington, Massachusetts) is an American novelist and playwright who lives and writes in Gloucester, Massachusetts. He was a close friend of poet Charles Olson after Olson's return to Gloucester in the late 1950's. Bayliss's highly innovative and polymathic novels employ a vast vocabulary, contain mathematical and philosophical puzzles, and avoid pop culture references in favor of historical and mythological allusions.

[edit] Gloucesterman

Bayliss's Gloucesterman tetralogy explores the concepts of mythology and ritual throughout history; the value of collective human endeavor to society; the tension between the mysteries of art and science; and the degradation of culture through economic exploitation. Gloucesterbook and its sequel Gloucestertide create a fiction-world out of Gloucester similar to the Wessex of Thomas Hardy. The introductory volume Prologos was published in 1999. The final volume of the tetralogy, Gloucestermas, is still in progress.

[edit] Works

  • Gloucesterbook (Protean Press, Rockport MA 1992)
  • Gloucestertide (Protean Press, Rockport MA 1996)
  • Prologos (Basilicum Press, Ashburnham MA 1999)

[edit] External links