One summer day, a countercultural drifter known only as the Sunlight Man appears inBatavia, New York. Jailed for painting the word "LOVE" across two lanesof traffic, the Sunlight Man encounters Fred Clumly, a sixty-four-year-old town sheriff. Throughout the course of this impressive narrative, the dialogue between these two men becomes a microcosm of the social unrest that epitomized America during this significant historical period-and culminates in an unforgettable ending.

Beautifully expansive and imbued with exceptional social insight, The Sunlight Dialogues isJohn Gardner's most ambitious work andestablished him as one of the most important fiction writers in post-World War II America.

Thisebook features a new illustrated biography of John Gardner, including original letters, rare photos, and never-before-seen documents from the Gardner family and the University of Rochester Archives.

John Gardner (1933-1982) was born in Batavia, New York. His critically acclaimed books include the novels Grendel, The Sunlight Dialogues, and October Light, for which he received the National Book Critics Circle Award, as well as several works of nonfiction and criticism such as On Becoming a Novelist.He was also a professor of medieval literature and a pioneering creative writing teacher whose students included Raymond Carver and Charles Johnson.