John Gardner was born in 1933 and raised outside of Batavia, New York and graduated from Batavia High School in 1951. He was a poet, novelist, dramatist, translator and teacher as well as composing operas, librettos and paintings. Gardner wrote three works on the art of writing, which were "On Becoming a Novelist," "The Art of Fiction," and "On Moral Fiction." He also wrote the children's story "Dragon, Dragon" and the play "Days of Vengeance," which he wrote for his mother Priscilla. John C. Gardner died in 1982.