John Gardner
Encyclopedia
John Champlin Gardner, Jr. (July 21, 1933 – September 14, 1982) was an American
novelist, essayist, literary critic and university professor. He is perhaps most noted for his novel Grendel
, a retelling of the Beowulf
myth from the monster's point of view.
at a local school. Both parents were fond of Shakespeare
and often recited literature together. He was active in the Boy Scouts of America and made Eagle Scout. 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.
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. & PhD. in 1958 from the University of Iowa
. He was Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Detroit in 1970 or 1971.
, 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 with a philosophical underlying; 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.
. 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.
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 seemingly lost in the furor over On Moral Fiction
was Gardner's central thesis: 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."
Gardner inspired, and according to Raymond Carver
, also intimidated, his writing students. At Chico State University, when Carver, who was almost 5-years younger, 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.
Gardner spent the years before his death as a professor at Harpur College of Binghamton University
.
, 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."
. He remained in Johns Hopkins Hospital
for about a month and a half.
in 1980, but this marriage also ended in divorce in 1982.
on Tuesday, September 14, 1982. State Police
said that at about 2:30 pm, Gardner completed a curve on Route 92
about 3 mi (4.8 km) north of Oakland
, when he lost control of his 1979 Harley-Davidson
and went into the dirt shoulder, and then was thrown from the motorcycle. He was pronounced dead at Barnes-Kasson Hospital in Susquehanna. Gardner's fiancée, Susan Thornton, states that Gardner had been drinking the night before the accident. The autopsy revealed Gardner had a blood alcohol level of 0.075; the legal limit for driving at the time was 0.08. The crash came days before he was to marry Thornton. Gardner is buried next to his brother Gilbert in Batavia's Grandview Cemetery.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
novelist, essayist, literary critic and university professor. He is perhaps most noted for his novel Grendel
Grendel (novel)
Grendel is a 1971 parallel novel by American author John Gardner. It is a retelling of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf from the perspective of the antagonist, Grendel. The novel deals with finding meaning in the world, the power of literature and myth, and the nature of good and evil.Grendel...
, a retelling of the Beowulf
Beowulf
Beowulf , but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject." of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.It survives in a single...
myth from the monster's point of view.
Early life and education
Gardner was born in Batavia, New York. His father was a lay preacher and dairy farmer, and his mother taught EnglishEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
at a local school. Both parents were fond of Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
and often recited literature together. He was active in the Boy Scouts of America and made Eagle Scout. 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
Cultipacker
A cultipacker is a piece of agricultural equipment that crushes dirt clods, removes air pockets, and presses down small stones, forming a smooth, firm seedbed...
. 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.
Gardner began his university education at DePauw University
DePauw University
DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, USA, is a private, national liberal arts college with an enrollment of approximately 2,400 students. The school has a Methodist heritage and was originally known as Indiana Asbury University. DePauw is a member of both the Great Lakes Colleges Association...
, but received his undergraduate degree from Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis
Washington University in St. Louis is a private research university located in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1853, and named for George Washington, the university has students and faculty from all fifty U.S. states and more than 110 nations...
in 1955. He received his M.A. & PhD. in 1958 from the University of Iowa
University of Iowa
The University of Iowa is a public state-supported research university located in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. It is the oldest public university in the state. The university is organized into eleven colleges granting undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees...
. He was Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of Detroit in 1970 or 1971.
Fiction
Gardner's best known novels include: The Sunlight DialoguesThe Sunlight Dialogues
The Sunlight Dialogues is a 1972 novel by the American author John Gardner.-Plot summary:The novel is set in the 1960s in Batavia, New York. It follows Batavia police chief Fred Clumly in his pursuit of a magician known as the Sunlight Man, a champion of existential freedom and pre-biblical...
, about a brooding, disenchanted policeman who is asked to engage a madman fluent in classical mythology; Grendel
Grendel (novel)
Grendel is a 1971 parallel novel by American author John Gardner. It is a retelling of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf from the perspective of the antagonist, Grendel. The novel deals with finding meaning in the world, the power of literature and myth, and the nature of good and evil.Grendel...
, a retelling of the Beowulf
Beowulf
Beowulf , but modern scholars agree in naming it after the hero whose life is its subject." of an Old English heroic epic poem consisting of 3182 alliterative long lines, set in Scandinavia, commonly cited as one of the most important works of Anglo-Saxon literature.It survives in a single...
legend from the monster's point of view with a philosophical underlying; 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
National Book Critics Circle Award
The National Book Critics Circle Award is an annual award given by the National Book Critics Circle to promote the finest books and reviews published in English....
in 1976. Each book features brutish, isolated figures struggling for integrity and understanding in an unforgiving society.
Teaching and criticism
Gardner was a lifelong teacher of fiction writing. He was a favorite at the Bread Loaf Writers' ConferenceBread Loaf Writers' Conference
The Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is a writers' conference held every summer at the Bread Loaf Inn, near Bread Loaf Mountain, east of Middlebury, Vermont...
. 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.
In 1978, Gardner's book of literary criticism, On Moral Fiction
On Moral Fiction
On Moral Fiction is a book-length essay by the American novelist John Gardner published in 1978. In this work, Gardner attacks what he sees as contemporary literature's lack of morality, which he calls the highest purpose of art and defines in the book...
, sparked a controversy that excited the mainstream media, vaulting Gardner into the spotlight with an interview on The Dick Cavett Show
The Dick Cavett Show
The Dick Cavett Show has been the title of several talk shows hosted by Dick Cavett on various television networks, including:* ABC daytime ...
(May 16, 1978) and a cover story on The New York Times Magazine
The New York Times Magazine
The New York Times Magazine is a Sunday magazine supplement included with the Sunday edition of The New York Times. It is host to feature articles longer than those typically in the newspaper and has attracted many notable contributors...
(July, 1979). His judgments of contemporary authors—including such luminaries of American fiction as John Updike
John Updike
John Hoyer Updike was an American novelist, poet, short story writer, art critic, and literary critic....
and John Barth
John Barth
John Simmons Barth is an American novelist and short-story writer, known for the postmodernist and metafictive quality of his work.-Life:...
—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 seemingly lost in the furor over On Moral Fiction
On Moral Fiction
On Moral Fiction is a book-length essay by the American novelist John Gardner published in 1978. In this work, Gardner attacks what he sees as contemporary literature's lack of morality, which he calls the highest purpose of art and defines in the book...
was Gardner's central thesis: 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
Thomas Pynchon
Thomas Ruggles Pynchon, Jr. is an American novelist. For his most praised novel, Gravity's Rainbow, Pynchon received the National Book Award, and is regularly cited as a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature...
) or trendy nihilism in which Gardner felt they did not honestly believe. Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal
Gore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter, and political activist. His third novel, The City and the Pillar , outraged mainstream critics as one of the first major American novels to feature unambiguous homosexuality...
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."
Gardner inspired, and according to Raymond Carver
Raymond Carver
Raymond Clevie Carver, Jr. was an American short story writer and poet. Carver is considered a major American writer of the late 20th century and also a major force in the revitalization of the short story in the 1980s....
, also intimidated, his writing students. At Chico State University, when Carver, who was almost 5-years younger, mentioned to Gardner that he had read, but not liked, the assigned short story, Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren
Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the influential literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935...
'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.
Gardner spent the years before his death as a professor at Harpur College of Binghamton University
Binghamton University
Binghamton University, also formally called State University of New York at Binghamton, , is a public research university in the State of New York. The University is one of the four university centers in the State University of New York system...
.
Scholarship
In 1977, Gardner published The Life and Times of Chaucer. In a review in the October 1977 issue of SpeculumSpeculum (journal)
Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies is a quarterly academic journal published by the Medieval Academy of America. It was established in 1926. The journal's primary focus is on the time period from 500-1500 in Western Europe, but also on related subjects such as Byzantine, Hebrew, Arabic, and...
, 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
Peter S. Prescott
Peter S. Prescott was an American author and book critic. He was the senior book reviewer at Newsweek for more than two decades.In January, 1970, Prescott published A World of Our Own: Notes on Life and Learning in a Boys' Preparatory School, which described his alma mater, The Choate School, .In...
, writing in Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
, cited the Speculum article and accused Gardner of plagiarism
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is defined in dictionaries as the "wrongful appropriation," "close imitation," or "purloining and publication" of another author's "language, thoughts, ideas, or expressions," and the representation of them as one's own original work, but the notion remains problematic with nebulous...
, insinuations that were met by Gardner "with a sigh."
Cancer
On December 10, 1977, Gardner was hospitalized with colon cancerColorectal cancer
Colorectal cancer, commonly known as bowel cancer, is a cancer caused by uncontrolled cell growth , in the colon, rectum, or vermiform appendix. Colorectal cancer is clinically distinct from anal cancer, which affects the anus....
. He remained in Johns Hopkins Hospital
Johns Hopkins Hospital
The Johns Hopkins Hospital is the teaching hospital and biomedical research facility of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, located in Baltimore, Maryland . It was founded using money from a bequest by philanthropist Johns Hopkins...
for about a month and a half.
Family life
Gardner married Joan Louise Patterson on June 6, 1953; the marriage, which produced children, ended in divorce in 1980. Gardner then married the poet Liz RosenbergLiz Rosenberg
Liz Rosenberg is an American poet, novelist, children's book author, and book reviewer. She is currently a professor of English at Binghamton University, and in previous years has taught at Colgate University, Sarah Lawrence College, Hamilton College, Bennington College, and Hollins College...
in 1980, but this marriage also ended in divorce in 1982.
Death
Gardner was killed in a motorcycle accident about 2 miles from his home in Susquehanna CountySusquehanna County, Pennsylvania
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 42,238 people, 16,529 households, and 11,785 families residing in the county. The population density was 51 people per square mile . There were 21,829 housing units at an average density of 26 per square mile...
on Tuesday, September 14, 1982. State Police
Pennsylvania State Police
The Pennsylvania State Police is the state police force of Pennsylvania, responsible for statewide law enforcement. It was founded in 1905 by order of Governor Samuel Pennypacker, in response to the private police forces used by mine and mill owners to stop worker strikes and the inability or...
said that at about 2:30 pm, Gardner completed a curve on Route 92
Pennsylvania Route 92
Pennsylvania Route 92 is a long north–south state highway located in northeast Pennsylvania. The southern terminus of the route is at U.S. Route 11 in West Pittston. The northern terminus is at the New York-Pennsylvania border in Oakland Township, where PA 92 continues northward as New York...
about 3 mi (4.8 km) north of Oakland
Oakland, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania
Oakland is a borough in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population of Oakland borough was 622 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Oakland is located at Oakland is a borough in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, United States. (Not to be confused with Oakland Township, Susquehanna...
, when he lost control of his 1979 Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson
Harley-Davidson , often abbreviated H-D or Harley, is an American motorcycle manufacturer. Founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the first decade of the 20th century, it was one of two major American motorcycle manufacturers to survive the Great Depression...
and went into the dirt shoulder, and then was thrown from the motorcycle. He was pronounced dead at Barnes-Kasson Hospital in Susquehanna. Gardner's fiancée, Susan Thornton, states that Gardner had been drinking the night before the accident. The autopsy revealed Gardner had a blood alcohol level of 0.075; the legal limit for driving at the time was 0.08. The crash came days before he was to marry Thornton. Gardner is buried next to his brother Gilbert in Batavia's Grandview Cemetery.
Fiction
- The Resurrection, New American Library, 1966; Vintage Books, 1987, ISBN 9780394732503
- The Wreckage of Agathon Harper & Row, 1970; Dutton, 1985, ISBN 9780525481805
- GrendelGrendel (novel)Grendel is a 1971 parallel novel by American author John Gardner. It is a retelling of the Anglo-Saxon epic poem Beowulf from the perspective of the antagonist, Grendel. The novel deals with finding meaning in the world, the power of literature and myth, and the nature of good and evil.Grendel...
New York: Vintage Books, 1971. illustrated by Emil Antonucci, ISBN 0679723110 - The Sunlight DialoguesThe Sunlight DialoguesThe Sunlight Dialogues is a 1972 novel by the American author John Gardner.-Plot summary:The novel is set in the 1960s in Batavia, New York. It follows Batavia police chief Fred Clumly in his pursuit of a magician known as the Sunlight Man, a champion of existential freedom and pre-biblical...
Knopf, 1972, ISBN 9780394471440; reprint New Directions Publishing, 2006, ISBN 0-8112-1670-5 - Jason and Medeia Knopf, 1973, ISBN 9780394483177; Vintage Books, 1986, ISBN 9780394740607; reprint New Directions Publishing, 2007, ISBN 9780811216784
- The King's Indian Knopf, 1974, ISBN 9780394492216; reissue Ballantine Books, 1983, ISBN 9780345303721; reprint New Directions Publishing, 2005, ISBN 9780811216371
- In the Suicide Mountains Knopf, 1977, ISBN 9780394418803
- Vlemk the Box Painter Lord John Press, 1979, ISBN 9780935716023
- Freddy's Book Knopf, 1980, ISBN 9780394509204; White Pine Press, 2007, ISBN 9781893996847
- The Art of Living and Other Stories Knopf, 1981; reprint, Vintage Books, 1989, ISBN 9780679723509
- Mickelsson's GhostsMickelsson's GhostsMickelsson's Ghosts is John Gardner's final novel, published in 1982. It follows Peter Mickelsson, former football player and current Professor of Philosophy at Binghamton University. Mickelsson is driven, opinionated, probably a drunk, definitely bankrupt, and perhaps going completely mad...
Knopf, 1982, ISBN 9780394504681.; reprint New Directions Publishing, 2008, ISBN 9780811216791 - Stillness and Shadows Knopf, 1986, ISBN 9780394544021.
Children's stories
- Dragon, Dragon (and Other Tales) Knopf, 1975; Bantam Books, 1979, ISBN 9780553150674
- Gudgekin The Thistle Girl (and Other Tales) Knopf, 1976, ISBN 9780394832760
- The King of the Hummingbirds (and Other Tales) Knopf, 1977, ISBN 9780394833194
- A Child's Bestiary Knopf, 1977, ISBN 9780394834832
Criticism and Instruction
- The Forms of Fiction (1962)
- The Construction of the Wakefield Cycle (1974)
- The Poetry of Chaucer (1977)
- On Moral FictionOn Moral FictionOn Moral Fiction is a book-length essay by the American novelist John Gardner published in 1978. In this work, Gardner attacks what he sees as contemporary literature's lack of morality, which he calls the highest purpose of art and defines in the book...
Basic Books, 1979, ISBN 9780465052264 - On Becoming a Novelist (1983)
- The Art of Fiction (1983)
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)
Further reading
- Anna Kowalcze, "Disregarding the Text: Postmodern Medievalisms and the Readings of John Gardner's Grendel," The Year's Work in Medievalism 15 (2002), ed. Jesse Swan and Richard Utz.
External links
- "Audio Interview with John C. Gardner", Wired for Books