John Reynolds Gardiner (December 6, 1944 – March 4, 2006) was a writer best known for writing the book Stone Fox.

Personal life

Born in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, he was a rebellious boy whose teachers believed he would never get anywhere in life. He earned his

master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

from

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. He was an engineer before working on his first and best-known children's book, ''Stone Fox'', which, at the time of his death in 2006, had sold four million copies. Always creative, in his younger years he ran Num Num Novelties, home to such originals as the aquarium tie. He lived in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

El Salvador El Salvador (; , meaning " The Saviour"), officially the Republic of El Salvador ( es, República de El Salvador), is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south b ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

, Italy, Ireland, and

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and Wyom ...

where he heard a local legend that inspired Stone Fox. He took a special class on screenplay and wrote Stone Fox as a movie, but a producer told him to publish it into a novel. Gardiner also edited children's stories for television. He lived out his final years with his wife, Gloria, in California and died of complications from

pancreatitis Pancreatitis is a condition characterized by inflammation of the pancreas. The pancreas is a large organ behind the stomach that produces digestive enzymes and a number of hormones. There are two main types: acute pancreatitis, and chronic pancr ...

Anaheim, California Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the 10th-most p ...

Works

;Novels *'' Stone Fox'' *''Top Secret'' *''General Butterfingers'' *''How to Live a Life That's Not Boring'' ;Filmography *''Stone Fox'' (1987 TV film) (book)

References

External links

* American male novelists American children's writers 1944 births 2006 deaths Writers from Los Angeles Burials at Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery Deaths from pancreatitis 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American male writers {{US-child-writer-stub