On this day in 1982 the novelist and scholar John Gardner died at the age of forty-nine in a motorcycle accident. Academically, Gardner was a medievalist, as is reflected in his first popular novel, Grendel (1971), which retells the Beowulf story from the point of view of the monster. Other novels include The Sunlight Dialogues (1972), Nickel Mountain (1973), and the award-winning October Light, all set in upstate New York, where Gardner was born, or New England, where he did much of his teaching. ... FULL STORY »
