Ernest Gaines
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Gaines was among his family's fifth generation born on the River Lake Plantation in Pointe Coupée Parish, Louisiana, the influence and a common setting for his fiction. He was the eldest of 12 children, raised by his aunt, who was crippled and had to crawl to get around the house. Gaines was not a slave, though he grew up in impoverished conditions in old slave quarters on the plantation.
Gaines's first six years of school were in the plantation church. A visiting teacher would teach him and the other children for five to six months of each year, depending on when the children were not picking cotton in the fields. Gaines's then spent three years at St. Augustine, a Catholic school for African Americans in New Roads. Pointe Coupée Parish schooling for African-American children did not continue beyond the eighth grade during his time.
When he was fifteen, 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 age 17, while babysitting his youngest brother. 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. He earned a degree in literature in 1957 from SFSU. After spending two years in the Army, he won a writing fellowship to Stanford University.
He has lived in Lafayette, Louisiana since 1984. Gaines's fiction has received critical acclaim. His works have been taught in college classrooms and translated into many languages, including French, Spanish, German, Russian, and Chinese. Four of his works have been produced into television movies.
Published works
Books- (2005)
- A Lesson Before Dying (1993) – National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction (1993); Oprah's Book Club (1997)
- A Gathering of Old Men (1984)
- In My Father's House (1978)
- A Long Day in November (1971)
- The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971)
- Bloodline (1968)
- Of Love and Dust (1967)
- Catherine Carmier (1964)
- My Grandpa and the Haint (1966)
- A Long Day in November (1964)
- The Sky Is Gray (1963)
- Just Like a Tree (1963)
- Mary Louis (1960)
- Boy in the Double-Breasted Suit (1957)
- The Turtles (1956)
- A Lesson Before Dying, HBO (1999); winner, Emmy Award for Outstanding Made For Television Movie
- A Gathering of Old Men, CBS Television (1987)
- The Sky Is Gray, American Short Story Series, PBS (1980)
- The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, CBS Television (1974)
Awards
- Chevalier in the Order of Art and Letters (France) (2000)
- The American Academy of Arts and Letters (2000)
- The National Governors’ Arts Award (2000)
- The Louisiana Writer of the Year Award (2000)
- National Humanities Medal (2000)
- John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation fellow (1993)
- Dos Passos Prize (1993)
- Louisiana Humanist of the Year (1993)
- Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation fellow (1971)
- National Endowment for the Arts grant (1967)
- Wallace Stegner fellow (1957)
Famous quotes
- "Question everything. Every stripe, every star, every word spoken. Everything."
- "Sometimes you got to hurt something to help something. Sometimes you have to plow under one thing in order for something else to grow."
- "The mark of fear is not easily removed."
- "There will always be men struggling to change, and there will always be those who are controlled by the past."
- "Why is it that, as a culture, we are more comfortable seeing two men holding guns than holding hands?"
- "Words mean nothing. Action is the only thing. Doing. That's the only thing."
Sources
External links
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