Background
Gardner was born on March 16, 1869 in Chicago, Illinois, the second child and second son of Charles and Louise (Crapo) Gardner.
Gardner was born on March 16, 1869 in Chicago, Illinois, the second child and second son of Charles and Louise (Crapo) Gardner.
Gardner attended Williams College, where he was registered as Harry Gilson Gardner, and was graduated with the degree of A. B. in 1892. He then went to Northwestern University Law School, obtaining his degree of LL. B. in 1894.
Gardner was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1894, but did not practise law, deciding instead upon a journalistic career. During his law course and until 1895 he was a reporter and editorial writer on the staff of the Chicago Daily News. Then for eleven years (1895-1905, inclusive) he was connected with the Chicago Journal, serving as dramatic critic, municipal reporter, editorial writer, city editor, managing editor, and as Springfield (Illinois) and Washington correspondent of that paper. His newspaper work centered more and more in the national capital and after his connection with the Chicago Journal, he became Washington correspondent of the Newspaper Enterprise Association and later Washington correspondent of the Scripps chain of newspapers, winning in that capacity wide recognition as a journalist and publicist. His newspaper connections brought him into relationship with President Theodore Roosevelt, whose friend and political counselor he became, as well as the friend and adviser of other officials of national importance. When Roosevelt emerged from the African wilds in 1910, Gardner met him at Khartum and filed from there the first interview given out by the former president after his hunting adventures. He was in effect the chief of the throng of reporters who crossed the ocean and met Roosevelt on the upper Nile. Gardner accompanied Roosevelt on the "triumphal march" across Europe and returned with him to New York. During the Progressive maelstrom into which the country was plunged soon after Roosevelt's return to his native shores, Gardner was associated with the Scripps syndicate, then extremely liberal and independent. He was in hearty sympathy with the movement and when, in 1911, discussion began concerning Republican presidential candidates, and Roosevelt and Robert M. La Follette, frank in their disapproval of what they considered Taft's reactionary policies, were prominently before the public in this connection, Gardner acted as intermediary between the two men, attempting to clarify a misunderstanding as to who should receive preferential treatment. He continued active association with the Progressives, for a time supporting the candidacy of Senator La Follette, but becoming an open supporter of Roosevelt for the presidential nomination after the latter became an avowed candidate for the newly organized Progressive party. Gardner was, throughout his reportorial career, much more than a newspaper correspondent. As the friend and confidant of Roosevelt, often acting as his go-between, he was in the thick of numerous political skirmishes and campaigns and was looked upon as one who had influence in high places and whose political opinion carried weight. From about the turn of the century until his sudden death in Washington, in his sixty-seventh year, Gardner was a prolific writer for the magazine press as well as for newspapers, the majority of his articles, which appeared in such periodicals as the Nation, Harper's Weekly, the New Republic, Technical World Magazine, being in the realm of politics, social reform, and technical development.
On November 3, 1900, Gardner was married to Matilda Campbell Hall, of Chicago, daughter of Frederick H. Hall, for many years on the editorial staff of the Chicago Tribune. There were no children.