Gaines, Ernest J., 1933-....

Prominent Louisiana author of several modern American novels, including AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE PITTMAN, and writer in residence at the University of Southwestern Louisiana.

Ernest J. Gaines, a prominent African American writer, was born on Jan. 15, 1933. He grew up in the slave quarters of a plantation in Pointe Coupee, Louisiana, a place which influenced his fiction. He received his early education there in a schoolroom in a plantation church. At fifteen he moved to Vallejo, California, to live with his mother and stepfather. When he was seventeen he wrote his first novel, but it was rejected by a publisher. He later rewrote it and published it as Catherine Carmier. He served with the Army for two years and won a writing fellowship to Stanford University. Among his many published works are the novels The autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, A lesson before dying, and In my father's house. Several of his works have been made into films, most notably the television version of The autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, which aired in 1974.

Author Ernest J. Gaines was born on January 15, 1933 in Oscar, Louisiana to Manuel Gaines and Adrienne Jefferson Gaines. Gaines attended St. Augustine Catholic School until he moved to Vallejo, California in 1948 to live with his mother and stepfather. He graduated from Vallejo Junior College and went on to attend San Francisco State University, where he received his B.A. degree in language arts in 1957.

Before receiving his B.A. degree, Gaines served in the U.S. Army from 1953 until 1955, and then published his first short story,The Turtle, in a journal at San Francisco State University in 1956. He then published his second short story,Boy in the Double-Breasted Suit, the following year. These publications helped Gaines earn a Wallace Stegner Writing Fellowship in 1958 at Stanford University, where he remained for a year. Gaines published additional short stories before publishing his first novel,Catherine Carmier, in 1964. After publishing three subsequent novels, Gaines was the recipient of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Fellowship in 1971. In 1981, he became the writer-in-residence at the University of Louisiana and remained there until his retirement in 2004. After his retirement, Gaines focused on repairing and restoring his old plantation home in Louisiana.

Gaines was the recipient of numerous awards throughout his career. In 1967, Gaines won a National Endowment for the Arts grant; and in 1993, he was awarded the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship. His work has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize twice, and his book,A Lesson Before Dying, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction. The novel was also featured on Oprah's Book Club, in 1997. Several of Gaines' novels have been made into films as well, includingA Lesson Before Dying,A Gathering of Old Men,The Sky is Gray, andThe Autobiography of Jane Pittman. The film verson ofA Lesson Before Dyingwas critically acclaimed and won nine Emmy Awards. In 2007, a book award was established in his honor by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation to encourage African-American fiction writers.

Ernest J. Gaines was interviewed byThe HistoryMakerson May 22, 2017.