John Gardner (1975)

October Light involves a crotchety old man who lives in Vermont with his sister and does what so many of us, from time to time, feel tempted to do: shoot his TV with a big gun. It won John Gardner the 1976 National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. His other books include Grendel, a retelling of Beowolf, and On Becoming a Novelist. His complete works and papers are located in the rare books division in the library of the University of Rochester, New York (45 minutes).

•