John Gardner

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John Gardner


Born
in Batavia, New York, The United States
July 21, 1933

Died
September 14, 1982

Website

Genre

Influences
Chaucer


John Champlin Gardner was a well-known and controversial American novelist and university professor, best known for his novel Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf myth.

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 Gardn
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Average rating: 3.79 · 65,020 ratings · 5,296 reviews · 403 distinct worksSimilar authors
Grendel

3.69 avg rating — 41,787 ratings — published 1971 — 83 editions
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The Art of Fiction: Notes o...

3.99 avg rating — 6,244 ratings — published 1984 — 29 editions
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On Becoming a Novelist

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4.10 avg rating — 3,097 ratings — published 1983 — 38 editions
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October Light

3.86 avg rating — 1,165 ratings — published 1976 — 39 editions
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Nickel Mountain

3.72 avg rating — 1,057 ratings — published 1973 — 24 editions
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The Sunlight Dialogues (New...

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3.92 avg rating — 823 ratings — published 1972 — 32 editions
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On Moral Fiction

3.82 avg rating — 832 ratings — published 1978 — 22 editions
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Mickelsson's Ghosts

4.02 avg rating — 565 ratings — published 1982 — 24 editions
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Freddy's Book

3.74 avg rating — 545 ratings — published 1973 — 30 editions
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In the Suicide Mountains

3.81 avg rating — 371 ratings — published 1977 — 2 editions
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More books by John Gardner…

Related News

Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah's first book, a collection of speculative short stories titled Friday Black, made waves in the literary scene when it...
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Quotes by John Gardner  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Self pity is easily the most destructive of the non-pharmaceutical narcotics; it is addictive, gives momentary pleasure and separates the victim from reality.”
John Gardner

“When I was a child I truly loved:
Unthinking love as calm and deep
As the North Sea. But I have lived,
And now I do not sleep.”
John Gardner, Grendel

“i understand that the world was nothing: a mechanical chaos of casual, brute enmity on which we stupidly impose our hopes and fears. i understood that, finally and absolutely, i alone exist. all the rest, i saw, is merely what pushes me, or what i push against, blindly - as blindly as all that is not myself pushes back. i create the whole universe, blink by blink.”
John Champlin Gardner Jr., Grendel

Polls

NOTE: I reopened the poll to break the tie.

August's genre is fantasy. I've extended the deadline to vote since we only have one vote at the moment. New deadline is Thursday, July 10.

Deerskin Deerskin by Robin McKinley Robin McKinley
 
  2 votes, 66.7%

Ragnarok Ragnarok by A.S. Byatt A.S. Byatt
 
  1 vote, 33.3%

The Book of Atrix Wolfe The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia A. McKillip Patricia A. McKillip
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

The Eye of the World The Eye of the World (The Wheel of Time, #1) by Robert Jordan Robert Jordan
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

Grendel Grendel by John Gardner John Gardner
 
  0 votes, 0.0%

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