Jonathan Bayliss, Gloucester, 1967; Herman Melville, c. 1860; Charles Olson, Gloucester, 1967
credits: Peter Bayliss, Library of Congress, Charles Olson Collection of the Cape Ann Museum Library and Archives
"Wellingborough Redburn, whose famous leviathan led him step by step to realize that that story was but the central zenith of a single book with the seven tomes that altogether founded the later fiction and poetry ..."
- Gloucestermas
Herman Melville and His Admirers Bayliss and Olson
Friday, March 20, 2-4 pm
Houghton Library, Harvard Yard, Cambridge
A special program in honor of the centenary of Bayliss's 1926 birth
for JBS members and their guests
The author of Moby-Dick was a compelling interest of both Jonathan Bayliss and his friend Charles Olson. In his GLOUCESTERMAN fiction, Bayliss slipped in many allusions to Melville's writing, and Bayliss apparently read every published work of Melville with care and appreciation - including the long poem Clarel. Olson wrote the classic 1947 study Call Me Ishmael based on his Melville studies at Harvard during the 1930s.
The program will include short talks as well as an opportunity to look at Melville-related materials from Houghton's archives, including pages from a journal Melville kept in 1857 while traveling by ship through the Mediterranean to Palestine.
After an introduction by Houghton's Leslie Morris, Gore Vidal Curator of Modern Books and Manuscripts, attendees will hear a talk by JBS founding member Paul McGeary on Bayliss's interest in Olson. Next JBS Board member John Day will talk about Olson's time at Harvard. The final talk will be by Melville scholar Wyn Kelley, recently retired from MIT and a founding member of the Melville Society Cultural Project. She will discuss lesser-known aspects of Melville's life, including his travels to the Holy Land.