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The American novelist, essayist, critic, and academic John Gardner died at age 49, in a
motorcycle accident not far from his home in Susquehanna County, Pa., on this
date in 1982. He had won a degree of acclaim beforehand with novels such as Grendel, The Sunlight Dialogues and Nickel
Mountain, but nothing seemed to raise people’s hackles more in his career
than his full-throated assault on much of the contemporary literary scene in On Moral Fiction.
Gardner desperately needed the values--including "moral courage"--that he extolled in this cultural critique. His fatal accident, reckless and unnecessary, probably resulted, as much as anything else, from lifelong guilt for having caused the accidental death of a brother in childhood.
For a reconsideration of the controversial author’s career and life, see this Washington Post essay by David Stanton.
For a reconsideration of the controversial author’s career and life, see this Washington Post essay by David Stanton.
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