John Irving (1942 - ) is an American writer of novels, short fiction, and screenplays, and is probably best known for The World According to Garp (1978), which was a finalist for the National Book Award and was made into a film (1982) directed by George Roy Hill and starring Robin Williams, Glenn Close, and John Lithgow.
This novel includes an incident featuring a bit of very uncharacteristic Newfoundland behavior, in which a Newfoundland named Bonkers attacks the young Garp, biting off part of one of his ears.