John Gardner
John Champlin Gardner Jr. (July 21, 1933 – Sep 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. Ga
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John Champlin Gardner Jr. (July 21, 1933 – Sep 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. Gardner's best-known novels include; The Sunlight Dialogues; Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf legend from the monster's point of view, with an existential subtext; and October Light (the novel includes an invented "trashy novel”. This last book won the National Book Critics Circle Award in 1976. Gardner was a lifelong teacher of fiction writing. He was associated with 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.
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