“Tree-Root Politics” and Other Democratic messages, short readings from “Democratic Oak Tree,” a newly published book of political writings by our late GDCC member Jonathan Bayliss, will be the focus of the May meeting of the Gloucester Democratic City Committee on May 12.

Jonathan Bayliss was a novelist and playwright who made his living in business, including as Controller of Gorton’s. Later he served brief stints as administrative assistant to the mayor of Gloucester and as city treasurer. He was a member of the City Committee for many years.

The oldest of three children, raised by a single mother, Bayliss grew up in poverty during the Great Depression. After a year at Harvard he served in the Navy in World War II and finished college on the GI Bill at the University of California at Berkeley. Shortly before his death in 2009, he expressed his pleasure in having the privilege to have lived “between the bookends of FDR and Barack Obama.”

Readers will include Catherine Bayliss, Paul McGeary, Bill Nardone, and Roz Smith.
The meeting is held at the Gloucester House.

A social hour is at 7 p.m.; the meeting begins at 7:30.