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John Champlin Gardner, Jr. (July 21, 1933 – September 14, 1982) was a well-known and controversial American novelist and university professor, best known for his novel Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf myth. Image File history File links Wikitext. ... is the 202nd day of the year (203rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1933 (MCMXXXIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 257th day of the year (258th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar). ...

Early life and education

Gardner was born in Batavia, New York. His father was a lay preacher and dairy farmer, and his mother taught English at a local school. Both parents were fond of Shakespeare and often recited literature together. As a child, Gardner attended public school and worked on his father's farm, where, in April of 1945, his younger brother Gilbert was killed in an accident with a cultipacker. Gardner, who was driving the tractor during the fatal accident, carried guilt for his brother's death throughout his life, suffering nightmares and flashbacks. The incident informed much of Gardner's fiction and criticism — most directly in the 1977 short story "Redemption", which included a fictionalized recounting of the accident.^[1] Batavia is a city located in USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 16,256. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... This article needs to be wikified. ...

Gardner began his university education at DePauw University, but received his undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1955. He received his M.A. from the University of Iowa. This school is not to be confused with DePaul University in Chicago, Illinois, which has a similar pronunciation. ... Washington University redirects here. ... The University of Iowa, also commonly called Iowa or locally UI, is a major coeducational research university located on a 1,900-acre (8 km²) campus in Iowa City, Iowa, US, on the banks of the Iowa River in East Central Iowa. ...

Fiction

Gardner's most popular novels are: The Sunlight Dialogues, about a brooding, disenchanted policeman who is asked to engage a madman fluent in classical mythology; Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf legend from the monster's point of view; and October Light, about an aging and embittered brother and sister living and feuding together in rural Vermont. This last novel won the National Book Critics' Circle Award in 1976. Each book features brutish, isolated figures struggling for integrity and understanding in an unforgiving society. The Sunlight Dialogues is a 1972 novel by the American author John Gardner. ... Grendel is a 1971 parallel novel by American author John Gardner. ... This article is about the epic poem. ...

Teaching and criticism

Gardner was a lifelong teacher of fiction writing. He was a favorite at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. His two books on the craft of writing fiction—The Art of Fiction and On Becoming a Novelist—are considered classics. He was famously obsessive with his work, and acquired a reputation for advanced craft, smooth rhythms, and careful attention to the continuity of the fictive dream. At one level or another, his books nearly always touched on the redemptive power of art. The Bread Loaf Writers Conference, called by The New Yorker, the oldest and most prestigious writers conference in the country was founded in 1926. ...

In 1978, Gardner's book of literary criticism, On Moral Fiction, sparked a controversy that excited the mainstream media, vaulting Gardner into the spotlight with an interview on The Dick Cavett Show (May 16, 1978) and a cover story on The New York Times Magazine (July, 1979). His judgments of contemporary authors—including such luminaries of American fiction as John Updike and John Barth—which could be termed either direct, courageous, or unflattering, depending on one's perspective, harmed his relations with many in the publishing industry. Gardner claimed that lingering animosity from critics of this book led to the lukewarm critical reception of his final novel, Mickelsson's Ghosts. What was unfortunately lost in the furor over On Moral Fiction was Gardner's compelling thesis, perhaps the most clear articulation of his normative fictional philosophy: that fiction should be moral. Gardner meant "moral" not in the sense of narrow religious or cultural "morality," but rather that fiction should aspire to discover those human values that are universally sustaining. Gardner felt that few contemporary authors were "moral" in this sense, but instead indulged in "winking, mugging despair" (to quote his assessment of Thomas Pynchon) or trendy nihilism in which Gardner felt they did not honestly believe. Gore Vidal found the book, as well as Gardner's novels, sanctimonious and pedantic, and he called Gardner the "late apostle to the lowbrows, a sort of Christian evangelical who saw Heaven as a paradigmatic American university."^[2] On Moral Fiction is a book-length essay by the American novelist John Gardner published in 1978. ... The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of many talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on several television networks, including: ABC daytime (March 4, 1968–January 24, 1969) (originally titled This Morning) ABC prime time (May 26–September 19, 1969) ABC late night (December 29, 1969–January 1, 1975... is the 136th day of the year (137th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar). ... The New York Times is an internationally known daily newspaper published in New York City and distributed in the United States and many other nations worldwide. ... Also: 1979 by Smashing Pumpkins. ... John Hoyer Updike (born March 18, 1932 in Shillington, Pennsylvania) is an American novelist, poet, short story writer and literary critic. ... John Simmons Barth (born May 27, 1930) is an American novelist and short-story writer, known for the postmodernist and metafictive quality of his work. ... On Moral Fiction is a book-length essay by the American novelist John Gardner published in 1978. ... Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. ... Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (born October 3, 1925) (pronounced and , ) is an American author of novels, stage plays, screenplays, and essays, and the scion of a prominent political family. ...

In 1994, Stewart O'Nan published "On Writers and Writing" a posthumous collection of Gardner's essays and reviews. His friend and former student Charles Johnson wrote the introduction. Stewart ONan (born February 4, 1961) is an American author, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. ... Charles Johnson may refer to one of several individuals, including: Charles R. Johnson, contemporary African_American author Charles Johnson, 18th century Democratic_Republican politician from North Carolina Charles Elliott Johnson, contemporary Democratic politician from North Carolina Charles Johnson, Major League Baseball player Charles B. Johnson, chairman of Franklin Resources, Inc. ...

Gardner inspired, and some say also intimidated, his writing students. At Chico State University, when a young Raymond Carver mentioned to Gardner that he had read, but not liked, the assigned short story, Robert Penn Warren's "Blackberry Winter", Gardner said, "You'd better read it again." "And he wasn't joking", said Carver, who related this anecdote in his foreword to Gardner's book On Becoming a Novelist. In that foreword, he makes it clear how much he respected Gardner, and also relates his extraordinary kindness. For example, when Gardner saw that Carver needed a place to write undisturbed, Gardner gave him a key to his office. California State University, Chico California State University, Chico is the second_oldest campus in the California State University system. ... Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. ... Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic, and was one of the founders of The New Criticism. ...

Scholarship

In 1977, Gardner published The Life and Times of Chaucer. In a review in the October 1977 issue of Speculum, Sumner J. Ferris pointed to several passages that were allegedly lifted either in whole or in part from work by other authors without proper citation. Ferris charitably suggested that Gardner had published the book too hastily, but on April 10, 1978, reviewer Peter Prescott, writing in Newsweek, cited the Speculum article and accused Gardner of plagiarism, insinuations that were met by Gardner "with a sigh". Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ... is the 100th day of the year (101st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1978 Gregorian calendar). ... Peter S. Prescott is an American author and book critic. ... The Newsweek logo Newsweek is a weekly news magazine published in New York City and distributed throughout the United States and internationally. ... For other uses, see Plagiarism (disambiguation). ...

Cancer

On December 10, 1977, Gardner was hospitalized with colon cancer. He remained in Johns Hopkins Hospital for about a month and a half. is the 344th day of the year (345th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Also: 1977 (album) by Ash. ... Colorectal cancer, also called colon cancer or bowel cancer, includes cancerous growths in the colon, rectum and appendix. ... The Dome of the Johns Hopkins Hospital as seen from Broadway. ...

Family life

Gardner married cousin Joan Louise Patterson on June 6, 1953; the marriage saw children but ended in divorce. Gardner married the poet Liz Rosenberg in 1980, but this marriage also ended in divorce. His fatal motorcycle crash near Susquehanna, Pennsylvania came days before he was to marry Susan Thornton. A memoir of her relationship with Gardner, On Broken Glass: Loving and Losing John Gardner, was published in 2000. is the 157th day of the year (158th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1953 (MCMLIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1980 Gregorian calendar). ... Susquehanna Depot is a borough in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, 23 miles (37 km) southeast of Binghamton, N.Y., on the Susquehanna River. ...

Gardner is buried next to his brother Gilbert in Batavia's Grandview Cemetery.

Works

Fiction

• The Resurrection (1966)
• The Wreckage of Agathon (1970)
• Grendel (1971)
• The Sunlight Dialogues (1972)
• Jason and Medeia (1973)
• Nickel Mountain (1973)
• The King's Indian (1974)
• October Light (1976)
• In the Suicide Mountains (1977)
• Vlemk the Box Painter (1979)
• Freddy's Book (1980)
• The Art of Living and Other Stories (1981)
• Mickelsson's Ghosts (1982)

Grendel is a 1971 parallel novel by American author John Gardner. ... The Sunlight Dialogues is a 1972 novel by the American author John Gardner. ... Mickelssons Ghosts is John Gardners final novel. ...

Biography

• The Life and Times of Chaucer (1977)

Children's stories

• Dragon, Dragon (and Other Tales) (1975)
• Gudgekin The Thistle Girl (and Other Tales) (1976)

Criticism and Instruction

• The Poetry of Chaucer (1977)
• On Moral Fiction (1978)
• On Becoming a Novelist (1983)
• The Art of Fiction (1983)

On Moral Fiction is a book-length essay by the American novelist John Gardner published in 1978. ...

Translation

• The Complete Works of the Gawain Poet (1965)
• Gilgamesh (with John Maier, Richard A. Henshaw) (1984)

Essays and reviews

• On Writers and Writing (1994)

References

1. ^ (1990) in Allan Chavkin: Conversations with John Gardner. University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 0-87805-422-7. 
2. ^ Vidal, Gore (1986) "Calvino's Death." From The Essential Gore Vidal.

External links

• Literary Encyclopedia biography (in-progress)
• johngardner.org
• Grendel Page
• The Art Of Living review
• 1981 interview with John Gardner by Don Swaim at Wired for Books.
• John Gardner Society and John Gardner Conference, hosted by Genesee Community College
• The Paris Review Interview with John Gardner

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