Ernest James Gaines

Ernest James Gaines was born January 15, 1933, on River Lake Plantation in Oscar, a small town in Pointe Coupee Parish, near New Roads, Louisiana. The oldest of twelve children, he was raised by his great-aunt, Augusteen Jefferson, who provided the inspiration for the lead protagonist Miss Jane in the Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, as well as other strong black female characters, such as Miss Emma and Tante Lou in A Lesson Before Dying. Gaines’ birthplace serves as the model for his fictional world of Bayonne and St. Raphael Parish. With the exception of his fourth novel, In My Father’s House, all of Gaines’ fictional work is set in Bayonne. Although he has spent much of his life since age fifteen in San Francisco, he writes exclusively about life in the South. He is perhaps best known for his 1971 novel The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, featuring Cicely Tyson, which was made into a TV movie and won several Emmys. In May 1999, HBO debuted its made-for-television movie of A Lesson Before Dying.

MOST ACCLAIMED NOVEL

• Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize
• 1993 National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction
• October 1997 choice of Oprah's Book Club