John Gardner (American writer) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
John Gardner
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Gardner in 1977
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| Born | John Champlin Gardner Jr. July 21, 1933 Batavia, New York |
| Died | September 14, 1982 (aged 49) Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania |
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| Citizenship | United States |
| Alma mater | Washington University in St. Louis, University of Iowa |
| Notable works | The Sunlight Dialogues, On Moral Fiction, Grendel |
| Spouses | Joan Louise Patterson (1953–1980), Liz Rosenberg (1980–1982) |
| Partner | Susan Thornton |
John Champlin Gardner Jr. (July 21, 1933 – September 14, 1982) was an American novelist, essayist, literary critic and university professor. He is best known for his 1971 novel Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf myth from the monster's point of view.
Contents
Early life and education
Gardner was born in Batavia, New York. His father was a lay preacher and dairy farmer, and his mother taught third grade at a small school in a nearby village. Both parents were fond of poetry, and would often recite their favorite poetry and poetry they wrote about life on the farm at friends' homes. Gardner was active in the Boy Scouts of America and achieved the Eagle Scout rank. As a child, Gardner attended public school and worked on his father's farm, where in April 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 as an impetus for artistic inspiration.
Gardner began his university education at DePauw University, and received his undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis in 1955. He received his MA (1956) and PhD (1958) from the University of Iowa. He was distinguished visiting professor at the University of Detroit in 1970.
Fiction
Gardner's best-known novels include The Sunlight Dialogues, about a disaffected policeman asked to engage a madman fluent in classical mythology; Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf legend from the monster's point of view, with an existential subtext; and October Light, about an embittered brother and sister living and feuding with each other in rural Vermont (the novel includes an invented "trashy novel" that the woman reads). This last book won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1976.
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, a claim that Gardner met "with a sigh."
He is associated with a truism that holds that, in literature, only two plots exist: someone taking a journey, or a stranger arriving in town. However, Gardner's documented words on the subject, from The Art of Fiction, were simply exercise instructions to "use either a trip or the arrival of a stranger (some disruption of order—the usual novel beginning)."
Family life
Gardner married Joan Louise Patterson on June 6, 1953; the marriage, which produced children, ended in divorce in 1980. Gardner married poet and novelist Liz Rosenberg in 1980; this marriage ended in divorce in 1982.
Death
Gardner was killed in a motorcycle accident about two miles from his home in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania on September 14, 1982. He was pronounced dead at Barnes-Kasson Hospital in Susquehanna. The crash was four days before his planned marriage to Susan Thornton He was buried next to his brother Gilbert in Batavia's Grandview Cemetery.
Works
Fiction
- The Resurrection. New American Library, 1966; Vintage Books, 1987, ISBN: 978-0-394-73250-3
- The Wreckage of Agathon. Harper & Row, 1970; Dutton, 1985, ISBN: 978-0-525-48180-5
- Every Night's a Festival. William Morrow & Company, 1971
- Grendel. New York: Vintage Books, 1971, illustrated by Emil Antonucci, ISBN: 0-679-72311-0
- The Sunlight Dialogues. Knopf, 1972, ISBN: 978-0-394-47144-0; reprint New Directions Publishing, 2006, ISBN: 0-8112-1670-5
- Jason and Medeia. Knopf, 1973, ISBN: 978-0-394-48317-7; Vintage Books, 1986, ISBN: 978-0-394-74060-7 [epic narrative poem]
- Nickel Mountain: A Pastoral Novel, Knopf, 1973, ISBN: 978-0-394-48883-7; reprint New Directions Publishing, 2007, ISBN: 978-0-8112-1678-4
- The King's Indian. Knopf, 1974, ISBN: 978-0-394-49221-6; reissue Ballantine Books, 1983, ISBN: 978-0-345-30372-1 [stories]
- October Light, Knopf, 1976 ISBN: 978-0-394-49912-3; reprint New Directions Publishing, 2005, ISBN: 978-0-8112-1637-1
- Vlemk the Box Painter. Lord John Press, 1979, ISBN: 978-0-935716-02-3 [fairy tale]
- Freddy's Book. Knopf, 1980, ISBN: 978-0-394-50920-4; White Pine Press, 2007, ISBN: 978-1-893996-84-7
- The Art of Living and Other Stories. Knopf, 1981; reprint, Vintage Books, 1989, ISBN: 978-0-679-72350-9
- Mickelsson's Ghosts. Knopf, 1982, ISBN: 978-0-394-50468-1; reprint New Directions Publishing, 2008, ISBN: 978-0-8112-1679-1
- Stillness and Shadows. Knopf, 1986, ISBN: 978-0-394-54402-1 [uncompleted novels]
Biography
- reprint Barnes & Noble Publishing, 1999, ISBN
- 978-0-7607-1281-8
Poems
- Poems, Lord John Press, 1978
- Jason and Medeia. Knopf, 1973, ISBN: 978-0-394-48317-7; Vintage Books, 1986, ISBN: 978-0-394-74060-7 [epic narrative poem]
Children's stories
- Dragon, Dragon (and Other Tales). Knopf, 1975; Bantam Books, 1979, ISBN: 978-0-553-15067-4
- Gudgekin The Thistle Girl (and Other Tales). Knopf, 1976, ISBN: 978-0-394-83276-0
- The King of the Hummingbirds (and Other Tales). Knopf, 1977, ISBN: 978-0-394-83319-4
- A Child's Bestiary. Knopf, 1977, ISBN: 978-0-394-83483-2
Criticism and Instruction
- The Forms of Fiction (1962) (with Lennis Dunlap) Random House, anthology of short stories
- The Construction of the Wakefield Cycle (1974)
- The Poetry of Chaucer (1977)
- On Moral Fiction, Basic Books, 1978, ISBN: 978-0-465-05226-4
- On Becoming a Novelist (1983)
- The Art of Fiction (1983)
- On Writers and Writing (1994) ISBN: 978-0-201-62672-8; reprint Westview Press, 1995, ISBN: 978-0-201-48338-3
Translation
- The Complete Works of the Gawain Poet (1965)
- The Alliterative Morte Arthure and Other Middle English Poems (1971)
- Tengu Child (with Nobuko Tsukui) (1983)
- Gilgamesh (with John Maier, Richard A. Henshaw) (1984)
See also
In Spanish: John Gardner (escritor estadounidense) para niños
