Jason and Medeia

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1973. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. Good. [12], 354, [2] pages. Frontis illustration. Illustrations. Cover has some wear and soiling. Inscribed "To Ed With admiration" by author on fep. Sticker removed from inside front cover. Slightly shaken. No Dust Jacket present. John Champlin Gardner Jr. (July 21, 1933 - September 14, 1982) was an American novelist, essayist, literary critic and university professor. He is best known for his 1971 novel Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf myth from the monster's point of view. Gardner was a lifelong teacher of fiction writing. He was a favorite at the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. His two books on the craft of writing fiction—The Art of Fiction and On Becoming a Novelist—are considered classics. Derived from a Kirkus review: John Gardner is a writer of great energy and intellectual inventiveness, saturated in an imagination addicted to myth, mostly the existential sort, man creating his own myths about the self, about order, about love, as the world surrounding him falls to pieces, becomes increasingly chaotic or mindless or threatening. . Jason and Medeia, a retelling of this gory legend of destiny and defiance, of man as a cunning upstart and woman as a vengeful sorceress, of dragons' teeth and fire-breathing bulls, is impressive. The descriptive passages evoke a kind of stage direction, and the spangled adventures on and off the Argo -- scenes of "evil deeds," scenes "seismic in love and wrath" -- project force. The concluding moments of betrayal and carnage, which we remember from Ovid or Euripedes, send a few classic shivers down the reader's spine.