The Art of Living (38 page)

In 1980, Gardner married his second wife, a former student of his named Liz Rosenberg. The couple divorced in 1982, and that same year he became engaged to Susan Thornton, another former student. One week before they were to be married, Gardner died in a motorcycle crash in Pennsylvania. He was forty-nine years old.

A two-year-old Gardner, shown here, in 1935. He went by the nickname “Buddy” throughout his childhood.

Gardner on a motorcycle in 1948, when he was about fifteen years old. He was a lifelong enthusiast of motorcycle and horseback riding, hobbies that resulted in multiple broken bones and other injuries throughout his life.

Gardner's senior photo from Batavia High School, taken in 1950. Though he found most of his classes boring, he particularly enjoyed chemistry. One day in class, Gardner and some friends disbursed a malodorous concoction through the school's ventilation system, causing the whole building to reek and classes to be dismissed early.

Gardner and Joan Patterson, his first wife, in the early 1950s. The couple were high school sweethearts and attended senior prom together in 1951.

John and Joan's wedding photograph, taken on June 6, 1953.

A Gardner family photograph from 1957. From left to right: John Gardner, Priscilla (mother), John Sr. (father), Jim (brother), and Sandy (sister). John Sr. and Priscilla took in thirteen foster children after John and his siblings grew up and moved away.

Gardner at the University of Detroit in 1970. He was a distinguished visiting professor at the university.

Gardner's children, Joel and Lucy, circa 1975. Joel is the founder of Camp Gardner Films, and Lucy works in publishing. Both currently live in Massachusetts.

Gardner playing the French horn around 1979. He began playing in high school and played in the Batavia Civic Orchestra.

Gardner and Liz Rosenberg at their wedding on Valentine's Day, 1980. Liz's dress was a wedding gift from John, who had it made in Kansas City by a woman he had met at a reading there. Liz later remembered that instead of following her specifications, the dressmaker made her “Cleopatra's shroud.”

Gardner in the early 1980s. In the last years before his death, he had become much more interested in politics than in literature, declaring at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference in 1982 that “if you're not writing politically, you're not writing.”

Selected images from The John Gardner Papers, Department of Rare Books/Special Collections, University of Rochester.

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“The Joy of the Just” was originally published in
The American Poetry Review
; “Trumpeter” was originally published in
Esquire
; and “Stillness” was originally published in
The Hudson Review
.