American · 1933–2013
Leonard Gardner was an American novelist and screenwriter from Stockton, California. He is known for Fat City, his only novel, published in 1969 after years of work and parts of it appearing in magazines such as The Paris Review and Esquire. The book follows two boxers, one fading and one beginning, in the farm towns of the Central Valley. It was a finalist for the National Book Award and became a cult favorite among writers. Gardner wrote the screenplay for John Huston's 1972 film adaptation, which starred Stacy Keach and Jeff Bridges. He also wrote a small number of short stories and magazine pieces, and later worked in television, including writing for Hill Street Blues. He drew on his own youth in Stockton, where he had boxed at the local gym and worked in the fields. Gardner published very little, and Fat City remains his lasting work. He is regarded as a key voice in California working-class fiction and in American boxing literature. He died in 2013.