Bayliss Birthday Dinner with Special Guest Ken Riaf
Saturday, September 12, 2026, 5:45 pm
Join us for a dinner celebrating the centenary of Jonathan Bayliss's birth 100 years ago. (Bayliss was born on September 7, 1926, in Arlington, Massachusetts, and grew up poor during the Great Depression - mainly in Cambridge and southern Vermont. In 1956 he settled in Gloucester, where he wrote his four-volume fiction series, Gloucesterman.)
When he moved to Gloucester, Bayliss chose a house on Washington Street near the Gloucester train station because rail was his favorite form of travel. The dinner will be held at the Azorean Restaurant, located just steps from the train platform.
After dinner, Gloucester writer Ken Riaf – whose plays include My Station in Life, Think of Me Tuesday, and Copy and Acknowledge - will describe an encounter that he and filmmaker Henry Ferrini had with Bayliss in 2002.
Birthday cake will be served.