Grendel Lesson Plan

John Gardner was born in 1933 in Batavia, New York. He grew up on his father’s dairy farm, where his parents cultivated in him a love of literature from an early age. Gardner witnessed his younger brother’s tragic death in an accident on the farm, and this traumatic event became a major influence on Gardner’s writing. John Gardner spent his adult life in academia, achieving a Masters and a Ph.D. and teaching fiction writing at several universities. His novels, including Grendel, have received notable critical acclaim. However, some of Gardner’s stances as a literary critic have provoked controversy, particularly his collection of essays On Moral Fiction, in which he suggests that good...