Dr. E hails from small-town Ohio where he grew up playing in various metal bands, lifeguarding, and readin' the Great Books. He attended Princeton and received a Ph.D. in physics from UNC Chapel Hill, and today, like Benjamin Franklin, Dr. E is a Constitutional Scholar. He currently attends the same law school as Jefferson, Lincoln, Madison, and Hamilton--Shakespeare, the Bible, and the Classics--the law school where the only way to graduate is to write a Great Book.

THE JOLLY ROGER: FLAGSHIP OF THE RENAISSANCE:
The jollyroger.com network represents the world's largest literary endeavor by a single author, drawing in over 500,000 people each month to participate in Great Books forums and read Dr. E's poetry, prose, and fiction. The New York Times deemed jollyroger.com "simply unprecedented," adding that the site "teems with discussion, the kind that goes well beyond freshman lit 101." The Los Angeles Times referred to the classical portal as "a lavish virtual community known as The Jolly Roger."

THE PRESS:
Jollyroger.com has appeared in publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Book Magazine, The Los Angeles Times, The Raleigh News and Observer, The Charlotte Observer, Home Office Computing, The Triangle Business Journal, The Triangle Tech Journal, The Daily Tar Heel, The Lake Norman Times, The Charlotte Business Journal, The Industry Standard, The Pittsburgh Tribune, The Outer Banks Sentinel and more. Read excerpts here: http://www.jollyroger.com/beaconway/reviews.html.

PHYSICS, POETRY, SCREENWRITING, NOVELS, & VIDEO GAMES:
Dr. E doesn't really blog as he'd rather rock eternity. He's always been drawn to those things bigger than us--the mountains and the ocean, Shakespeare and Einstein. They set him free. And they'll set you free to, if you hang out with Dr. E. Cruise his websites and buy his books, and for a few bucks you'll get the classical education that's essential in making all deeper dreams a reality.

A varsity athlete in swimming and tennis, Dr. E lives for the highest of high adventures--those accomplished with the mind. Rockin' an artificial retina for the blind as a physics dissertation garnered him a Merrill Lynch Innovations grant, writing novels, poetry, and essays has been building the renaissance, and developing software that empowers indy artists and entrepreneurs had him speaking at the Harvard Law School.

Dr. E rocks out in teaching physics, and he's picked up a couple awards along the way, including the Tanner Award for Excellence in Undergraduate teaching at UNC.

His latest project, which has greeted him every morning for the past two years and kept him up past midnight, alone with the Carolina moon, is Autumn Rangers--a salue to America's better angels, noble heroes, and rugged spirit of the lone creators, inventors, visionairies, and entrepreneurs who pushed ever westward, and who keep us free. Autumn Rangers is a novel, screenplay, video game, and field guide to the rising Renaissance.

THE MOST PERFECT SILENCE I know where the most perfect silence is, Seen it in the wild blue off Hatteras, A mile out, rainbowed sails in silent bliss, Looked like they'd collide, but they safely passed. I know when the most perfect silence is, Down a dusty Ohio road, high noon, No shirt on, being burned by the sun's kiss, Sixteen, takin' my time-- it was still June. I know what the most perfect silence is, It's what we say when falling out of love, It roars and thunders right through the kiss, Says all that no words can ever speak of. I know why the most perfect silence is, It is there for the whisper to be born, The whisper in her ear became the kiss, Just a dream in DC early one morn. I know who the perfect silence is for, It is for the ones whom we love the best, It is there to protect them from our core, By the silent trust we all seek to rest. And I know how rare that silence can be, With everyone talkin', it's hard to hear, But I know I felt it, on the streets of DC, The sound in her eyes-- it was crystal clear. And it brought back to mind the rainbowed sails, And the way it looked like they would collide, Like two souls set upon fate's iron rails, But the most perfect silence never died. --Dr. E

The Books of Dr. Elliot McGucken

IN THE NAME OF FREEDOM The night fell fast, I found myself alone, A DC summer storm was blowing in, I stood at the tomb, these soldiers unknown, and knelt and prayed for the rain to begin. Not for the monuments nor any money, nor pomp, circumstance, nor the pedant's pride, the politician's smile, nor lawyer's fee, for these present treasures, none of them died. I ran to Jefferson to read the wall, to make sure that God was still written there, then to Washington, and across the Mall, where Lincoln invoked his immortal prayer, Winded and ragged, lightning everywhere, I slowed to a walk, pondered what would be, if God's great Enlightenment weren't there, we could still be brave but never be free. I found comfort in the Mall's mud and rain, without mines nor cannons nor raining shells, so free from fear, iniquity, and pain, because thousands had endured a thousand hells. And I found myself back before the tomb, humbled by the humbled, with naught for name, shivering, though they had the colder room, sans light, nor sound, nor tomorrow, nor fame. I thought for a moment, what it could be, the center and circumference of their dreaming, it must have been the prophet's poetry, that granted their souls eternal meaning. So judges and Congressmen, please don't forget, the reason these patriots picked up swords, not for perks nor power were their deaths met, but for honor and duty-- for mere words. So do take pause before telling a lie, for there's one more thing I saw on that night, as the wind and the rain began to die, I walked away, turned, and beheld a light. Wil'O'wisp, reddish light, sailor's delight, It hovered there-- just above the tomb's stone, As fading thunder whispered to the night, "Freedom's the name of all soldiers unknown." --Dr. E

Dr. E's Photography

Some of Dr. E's Life in Pictures