Name Jonathan Bayliss | Role Novelist | |
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Died April 15, 2009, Gloucester, Massachusetts, United States Education University of California, Berkeley Books Gloucesterbook, Prologos, Gloucestertide, Gloucestermas | ||
Jonathan Bayliss (September 7, 1926 in Arlington, Massachusetts – April 15, 2009 in Gloucester, Massachusetts) 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.
Contents
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, was published by Fontis Press in 2010.