Jonathan Bayliss
Encyclopedia
Jonathan Bayliss was an American novelist and playwright who lived and wrote in Gloucester, Massachusetts
. He was a close friend of poet Charles Olson
after Olson's return to Gloucester in the late 1950s. 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.
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, was published by Fontis Press in 2010.
Gloucester, Massachusetts
Gloucester is a city on Cape Ann in Essex County, Massachusetts, in the United States. It is part of Massachusetts' North Shore. The population was 28,789 at the 2010 U.S. Census...
. He was a close friend of poet Charles Olson
Charles Olson
Charles Olson , was a second generation American modernist poet who was a link between earlier figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams and the New American poets, which includes the New York School, the Black Mountain School, the Beat poets, and the San Francisco Renaissance...
after Olson's return to Gloucester in the late 1950s. 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.
Gloucesterman
Bayliss's Gloucesterman tetralogyTetralogy
A tetralogy is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works, just as a trilogy is made up of three works....
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
Thomas Hardy
Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...
. The introductory volume Prologos was published in 1999. The final volume of the tetralogy, Gloucestermas, was published by Fontis Press in 2010.
Works
- Gloucesterbook (Protean Press, Rockport MA 1992)
- Gloucestertide (Protean Press, Rockport MA 1996)
- Prologos (Basilicum Press, Ashburnham MA 1999)
- Gloucestermas (Fontis Press, Westborough, MA 2010)
External links
- Writings of Jonathan Bayliss Bayliss's website featuring all of his novels (except Gloucestermas) freely available for download.
- Drawbridge Press Publication information for Gloucestermas
- The Gilgamesh Plays Bayliss's other website featuring both of his Gilgamesh plays freely available for download.
- Jonathan Bayliss 1926 - 2009 This is the transcription of a eulogy delivered on April 27, 2009, at a memorial service for Bayliss, at St. John's Episcopal Church in Gloucester, Massachusetts. It was written by Peter Anastas and could also be described as a "memoir of a friendship".