Rolf Gross

Writings and Travels

..My First Novel 1995-2000

Photo Essays and Travelogs in HTML

...Monographs

.....Special Exhibitions

.....Travelogs

.....Travel Guides

....My Novels and Writings in Kindle Format

....Unpublished Writings in PDF Format

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The author with his daughter Susanne

A biographical note to my readers I was born Rolf Werner Friedrich Gross - the initials honor my two grandfathers, one a pastor, the other one a polyglot engineer - in Silesia, Germany in 1931. I live with my wife Barbara in California. We have two adult children, Susanne in Denver and Cornelius in Rome, Italy. All three often appear in my writings, e.g. Susanne on the author's photo. Professionally, I am/was a physicist. In 1956 I came to the US to finish my PhD at Harvard. After 28 years in research I threw physics over my left shoulder, retired, and devoted myself to my many other interests, art history, gold-smithing, architecture, photography, traveling and - writing a novel. After four years learning how to write I self-published "Konrad and Alexandra" in 2000. It was not a success, and I have still to earn a return on my publishing expenses. I recommend the present version. It has been reedited and shortened. It is also much cheaper than the paperback. Already during my years as a physicist I was lucky to be able to travel widely, teaching in the USSR, Georgia, Central Asia, and China. "Konrad and Alexandra" and the "The Return of the Monkey King" are based on these experiences. We fell in love with Greece. "Mount Athos-The Garden of the Virgin" and "Along the Way to Arcadia" are meditations on this country and its past. "The Snow Dancer", a second novel, explores my attraction to Buddhist Dzogchen, to which Cornelius introduced me. Dreams of visiting Tibet finally became reality in 1995. I organized a minor expedition for members of my family to the far West of the country. The diary of this strenuous trip, "Tibet, To the End of the World" will appear as a Kindle edition shortly Fascinated with the paintings by Hieronymus Bosch, I wrote a biography of this enigmatic man, when in 2002 new research permitted dating all his paintings. The richly illustrated Kindle version of this historical fiction is available as "The Life and Times of Hieronymus Bosch". It should be read on a color monitor such as Kindle-for-PC, Mac, or iPad. The Kindle device still shows color images only in black-and-white. An alternative is to explore the entries on this website which show annotated photo-essays on my publications and many additonal subjects in large format. I would appreciate to hear your comments and criticism, good or bad, via e-mail (see below).

....Rolf W. F. Gross
....Pacific Palisades, CA, July 2011
....personal e-mail