Ernest J. Gaines

Ernest James Gaines (January 15, 1933 – November 5, 2019) was an American author whose works have been taught in college classrooms and translated into many languages, including French, Spanish, German, Russian and Chinese. Four of his works were made into television movies.[2]

Ernest J. Gaines
Gaines at Fall for the Book
BornErnest James Gaines
(1933-01-15)January 15, 1933
Oscar, Louisiana, U.S.
DiedNovember 5, 2019(2019-11-05) (aged 86)
Oscar, Louisiana, U.S.
OccupationWriter
Notable worksA Lesson Before Dying
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
A Gathering of Old Men
Notable awardsNational Humanities Medal
Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
SpouseDianne Saulney[1]

His 1993 novel, A Lesson Before Dying, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Gaines was a MacArthur Foundation fellow, was awarded the National Humanities Medal, and was inducted into the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) as a Chevalier.

Biography

Gaines was among the fifth generation of his sharecropper family to be born on a plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. That became the setting and premise for many of his later works. He was the eldest of 12 children, raised by his aunt, who was crippled and had to crawl to get around the house. Although born generations after the end of slavery, Gaines grew up impoverished, living in old slave quarters on a plantation.

Gaines' first years of school took place in the plantation church. When the children were not picking cotton in the fields, a visiting teacher came for five to six months of the year to provide basic education. Gaines then spent three years at St. Augustine School, a Catholic school for African Americans in New Roads, Louisiana. Schooling for African-American children did not continue beyond the eighth grade during this time in Pointe Coupee Parish.[3]

When he was 15 years old, Gaines moved to Vallejo, California, to join his mother and stepfather, who had left Louisiana during World War II. His first novel was written at the age of 17, while Gaines was babysitting his youngest brother, Michael. According to one account, he wrapped it in brown paper, tied it with string, and sent it to a New York publisher, who rejected it. Gaines burned the manuscript, but later rewrote it to become his first published novel, Catherine Carmier.

In 1956, Gaines published his first short story, The Turtles, in a college magazine at San Francisco State University (SFSU). The next year he earned a degree in literature from SFSU. After spending two years in the Army, he won a writing fellowship to Stanford University.

From 1981 until retiring in 2004, Gaines was a Writer-in-Residence at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In 1996, Gaines spent a full semester as a visiting professor at the University of Rennes in France, where he taught the first creative writing class ever offered in the French university system.[4]

In the final years of his life, Gaines lived on Louisiana Highway 1 in Oscar, Louisiana, where he and his wife built a home on part of the old plantation where he grew up.[1][5] He had the building where he attended church and school moved to his property.[1][6]

Gaines died from natural causes at his home on November 5, 2019. He was 86 years old.[3][7]

Bibliography

Books

Short stories

  • "The Turtles" (1956)
  • "Boy in the Double-Breasted Suit" (1957)
  • "Mary Louise" (1960)
  • "Just Like a Tree" (1963)
  • "The Sky Is Gray" (1963)
  • "A Long Day in November" (1964)
  • "My Grandpa and the Haint" (1966)
  • "Christ Walked Down Market Street" (1984 - publish 2004) [9]

Filmography

Awards

Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence

A book award established by donors of the Baton Rouge Area Foundation in 2007 to honor Gaines' legacy and encourage rising African-American fiction writers. The winner is selected by a panel of five judges who are well known in the literary world. The winner receives a US$10,000 award and a commemorative sculpture created by Louisiana artist Robert Moreland.[13]

See also

References
  1. "Ernest J. Gaines". Lizzie Skurnick Books. Retrieved March 13, 2014.
  2. Lockhart, John M. "Words & Music", The Riverside Reader, February 4, 2008, p. 1.
  3. "Ernest Gaines has died at his home in Pointe Coupee Parish". KATC. November 5, 2019. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  4. Wolfgang Lepschy and Ernest J. Gaines, "A MELUS Interview :Ernest J. Gaines", The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS), Volume 24, Number 1 (Spring 1999).
  5. Katharine Q. Seelye, "Writer Tends Land Where Ancestors Were Slaves", New York Times, October 20, 2010. Retrieved October 21, 2010.
  6. Wayne Drash, "Author Ernest Gaines comes home to where his ancestors were enslaved", CNN, November 9, 2010.
  7. Ulkins, Graham. "Famed Louisiana author Ernest Gaines dies". WAFB. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  8. Michael Bibler. "Same-Sex Intimacy in Fiction About Southern Plantations", Southern Spaces, July 8, 2009. In the second section of this talk, Bibler addresses intimacy in Of Love and Dust.
  9. "Calloo vol 28". JSTOR 3805562. Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  10. "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman - Awards". IMDb. Retrieved November 5, 2019.
  11. "Ernest J. Gaines Biography and Interview". www.achievement.org. American Academy of Achievement. May 4, 2001.
  12. "Honorary Degrees | Whittier College". www.whittier.edu. Retrieved February 20, 2020.
  13. "The Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence". The Ernest J. Gaines Award for Literary Excellence. Retrieved November 5, 2019.

Sources
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