Jonathan Bayliss
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jonathan Bayliss 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
- The Gilgamesh Plays Bayliss's site, featuring both of his Gilgamesh plays in their entirety.
- The Gloucesterman Website A website dedicated to the analysis and appreciation of Bayliss's Gloucesterman novels.
