John Fentress Gardner was an American author and educator. He was a prolific author on the subjects of education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

, spiritualism

Spiritualism

Spiritualism is a belief system or religion, postulating the belief that spirits of the dead residing in the spirit world have both the ability and the inclination to communicate with the living...

, and anthroposophy

Anthroposophy

Anthroposophy, a philosophy founded by Rudolf Steiner, postulates the existence of an objective, intellectually comprehensible spiritual world accessible to direct experience through inner development...

, and the longtime headmaster of what is now called The Waldorf School of Garden City.

During his tenure as headmaster, the school was called "The Waldorf Demonstration School", then the "Waldorf School of Adelphi College", and finally the "Waldorf School of Adelphi University". The school is based on the teachings of Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner was an Austrian philosopher, social reformer, architect, and esotericist. He gained initial recognition as a literary critic and cultural philosopher...

, a European proponent of alternative education, clairvoyance and mysticism.

He was married to Carol Hemingway Gardner, who was Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...

's youngest sister. (See The Hemingway Review, Vol. 24, No. 1, Fall 2004.)

Selected works

• "American Heralds of the Spirit" (Hudson, NY: Lindisfarne Press, 1992),
• "Education in Search of the Spirit" (Hudson, NY: Anthroposophic Press, 1996),
• "The Experience of Knowledge: The Founding of Adelphi’s Waldorf School" (New York: The Myrin Institute Inc., 1962)
• "One Man's Vision: In Memoriam, H.A.W. Myrin" (New York: The Myrin Institute Inc., 1970),
• "The Idea of Man in America" (New York: The Myrin Institute, 1974),
• "Two Paths to the Spirit: Charismatic Christianity and Anthroposophy" (Great Barrington, MA: Golden Stone Press, 1990).