Jonathan Bayliss (September 7, 1926 in

Arlington, Massachusetts Arlington is a town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The town is six miles (10 km) northwest of Boston, Massachusetts, Boston, and its population was 46,308 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. History Europe ...

– April 15, 2009 in

Gloucester, Massachusetts Gloucester ( ) is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. It sits on Cape Ann and is a part of North Shore (Massachusetts), Massachusetts's North Shore. The population was 29,729 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 U.S. Census. ...

) was an American novelist and playwright who lived and wrote in

. He was a close friend of poet

Charles Olson Charles John Olson (27 December 1910 – 10 January 1970) was a second generation modernist United States poetry, American poet who was a link between earlier Literary modernism, modernist figures such as Ezra Pound and William Carlos Williams an ...

after Olson's return to Gloucester in the late 1950s. Correspondence between Bayliss and Olson from 1958 to January 1970 was published by the Cape Ann Museum. 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. He wrote two plays loosely based on the Sumerian Gilgamesh epic, ''The Tower of Gilgamesh'' and ''The Acts of Gilgamesh''.

Gloucesterman

Bayliss's ''Gloucesterman'' fiction

tetralogy A tetralogy (from Greek τετρα- ''tetra-'', "four" and -λογία ''-logia'', "discourse") is a compound work that is made up of four distinct works. The name comes from the Attic theater, in which a tetralogy was a group of three tragedies ...

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. The novel ''Gloucesterbook'' and its sequel ''Gloucestertide'' create a fiction-world out of Gloucester similar to the Wessex of

Thomas Hardy Thomas Hardy (2 June 1840 – 11 January 1928) was an English novelist and poet. A Literary realism, Victorian realist in the tradition of George Eliot, he was influenced both in his novels and in his poetry by Romanticism, including the poetry ...

. The introductory volume ''Prologos'' was published in 1999. The final volume of the tetralogy, ''Gloucestermas'', was published 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) * ''Democratic Oak Tree'' (Drawbridge Press, Gloucester, MA 2016) * ''Gilgamesh Plays'' (Drawbridge Press, Gloucester, MA 2017)

References

External links

Drawbridge Press
Current publisher of Bayliss's novels, plays, and political essays.
Jonathan Bayliss Society
A literary society established to foster appreciation of Jonathan Bayliss's life and works.

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".
Gloucesterman
Website relating to Jonathan's Bayliss fiction tetralogy ''Gloucesterman''; includes links to audio and video recordings of readings and related materials. {{DEFAULTSORT:Bayliss, Jonathan 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers 1926 births 2009 deaths People from Gloucester, Massachusetts American male novelists Burials at Mount Auburn Cemetery