Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Acclaimed Novelist Ernest Gaines Dies at 86
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 5 years ago on
November 6, 2019

Share

NEW ORLEANS — Novelist Ernest J. Gaines, whose poor childhood on a small Louisiana plantation germinated stories of black struggles that grew into universal tales of grace and beauty, has died. He was 86.
The Baton Rouge Area Foundation, which sponsors a literary award in Gaines’ honor, confirmed he died Tuesday in his sleep of cardiac arrest at his home in Oscar, Louisiana.

“Ernest Gaines was a Louisiana treasure. He will be remembered for his powerful prose that placed the reader directly into the story of the old South, as only he could describe it. We have lost a giant and a friend.” — The Baton Rouge Area Foundation president and CEO John Davies
“Ernest Gaines was a Louisiana treasure,” foundation president and CEO John Davies said in a statement. “He will be remembered for his powerful prose that placed the reader directly into the story of the old South, as only he could describe it. We have lost a giant and a friend.”
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said in a statement that Gaines “used his immense vision and literary talents to tell the stories of African Americans in the South. We are all blessed that Ernest left words and stories that will continue to inspire many generations to come.”
“A Lesson Before Dying,” published in 1993, was an acclaimed classic. Gaines was awarded a “genius grant” that year by the MacArthur Foundation, receiving $335,000.
Both “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” (1971) and “A Gathering of Old Men” (1984) became honored television movies.
The author of eight books, Gaines was born on a plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish. His first writing experience was writing letters for illiterate workers who asked him to embellish their news to far-off relatives. Bayonne, the setting for Gaines’ fiction, was actually New Roads, Louisiana, which Gaines left for California when he was 15.

Using His Storytelling Gifts Meant More Than Militant Civil Rights Action

Although books were denied him throughout his childhood because of Louisiana’s strict segregation, which extended even to libraries, he found the life surrounding him rich enough to recollect in story after story through exact and vivid detail.
In “A Lesson Before Dying,” for example, the central figure is the teacher at the plantation school outside town. Through the teacher, whose profession Gaines elevates to a calling, the novelist explores the consistent themes of his work: sacrifice and duty, the obligation to others, the qualities of loving, the nature of courage.
Gaines found that using his storytelling gifts meant more than militant civil rights action. “When Bull Connor would sic the dogs, I thought, ‘Hell, write a better paragraph.’
“In 1968, when I was writing ‘The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman,’ my friends said, ‘Why write about a 110-year-old lady when all of this is going on now?’ And I said, ‘I think she’s going to have something to say about it.'”
What Gaines’ characters said about it achieved a power and timelessness that made him a distinctive voice in American literature. Much of the appeal of his books is their seeming simplicity and straightforward story line. “I can never write big novels,” he always maintained. But the questions he explored were the eternal ones great writers confront: what it means to be human, what a human lives and dies for.
A large, gentlemanly man with a certain bohemian air — braces and berets were favorite attire — and a stately manner, Gaines was devoted to friends and family. When he married in 1993 at age 60, he celebrated in Lafayette, New Orleans, Miami, and San Francisco, so the gatherings could include his intimates. Dianne Saulney Gaines is an assistant district attorney for Dade County, Florida. The couple divided their time among various abodes but spent the MacArthur money on a year in France and other travels.

His Literary Influences Were Eclectic

Gaines spent the fall teaching creative writing at the then-University of Southwestern Louisiana in Lafayette (now University of Louisiana at Lafayette) since 1983. It’s only about an hour’s drive from his childhood home.

“I discovered John Steinbeck … then Willa Cather … then the great 19th Century Russian and French writers, writers like DeMaupassant and Flaubert. Then I discovered Ivan Turgenyev, the great Russian classicist. He wrote small novels where everyone wrote big novels. … (Turgenyev’s) ‘Fathers and Sons’ was one of my favorite books when I was a young man. It was my Bible when I was writing my first novel, ‘Catherine Carmier’ (1964).” — Novelist Ernest J. Gaines
He could not write and teach at the same time. He needed five or six hours each day devoted to writing and “I can’t write a couple of days and skip two or three days.”
“A Lesson Before Dying” took seven years.
“I work five days a week, just like a regular job. I get up in the morning, do a little exercise, eat a little breakfast. I’m at my desk by nine in the morning, work until three with a little break for lunch,” he said.
His literary influences were eclectic. Since he got a late start as a reader, he read with a vengeance.
“I discovered John Steinbeck … then Willa Cather … then the great 19th Century Russian and French writers, writers like DeMaupassant and Flaubert. Then I discovered Ivan Turgenyev, the great Russian classicist. He wrote small novels where everyone wrote big novels. … (Turgenyev’s) ‘Fathers and Sons’ was one of my favorite books when I was a young man. It was my Bible when I was writing my first novel, ‘Catherine Carmier’ (1964),” he said.
Other books include “Of Love and Dust” (1967), “Bloodline” (1968), “A Long Day in November” (1971), and “In My Father’s House” (1978).
Among his numerous awards, Gaines received prestigious grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Rockefeller and Guggenheim Foundations. He held honorary doctorates from five colleges and universities.
The Ernest Gaines Award for Literary Excellence will continue as his legacy. It will be presented Jan. 30 to a rising African American author.

DON'T MISS

Trump Fires NSC Officials a Day After Far-Right Activist Raises Concerns to Him

DON'T MISS

China Halts Approvals for New US Investment Projects

DON'T MISS

Measles Spreads to Central Texas; 5 States Have Active Outbreaks

DON'T MISS

Trump Tariff Fears Erase $2 Trillion From US Stocks

DON'T MISS

Startup Offers Controversial Microplastic Blood Cleansing Treatment

DON'T MISS

Senate Confirms Mehmet Oz to Take Lead of Medicare and Medicaid Agency

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Pence Will Receive the Profile in Courage Award From the JFK Library for His Actions on Jan. 6

DON'T MISS

Politics Turns Ugly for a Conservative Running for Fresno State Student Body President

DON'T MISS

Pentagon’s Watchdog to Review Hegseth’s Use of Signal App to Convey Plans for Houthi Strike

UP NEXT

The ‘Six’ Wives of King Henry VIII Sing Their Hearts Out in Fresno

UP NEXT

Val Kilmer, ‘Top Gun’ and Batman Star With an Intense Approach, Dies at 65

UP NEXT

Anjelah Johnson-Reyes to Headline Chukchansi’s Summer Series with ‘Family Reunion Tour’

UP NEXT

Gronk-a-Mania Set to Run Wild Over WrestleMania Weekend

UP NEXT

Head of Amazon’s TV and Film Steps Down

UP NEXT

Prosecutor Seeks 18-Month Suspended Sentence for Depardieu if Convicted of Sexual Assault

UP NEXT

Plant-Based Eating in Middle Age Linked to Healthier Senior Years

UP NEXT

Woman Accuses Actor Gérard Depardieu of Sexual Assault on Film Set

UP NEXT

Topgolf Coming to the Central Valley? Chukchansi Gold to Open First Swing Suite

UP NEXT

‘Juntos’ Tour Brings Regional Mexican Superstars to Fresno This Summer

Trump Tariff Fears Erase $2 Trillion From US Stocks

1 hour ago

Startup Offers Controversial Microplastic Blood Cleansing Treatment

1 hour ago

Senate Confirms Mehmet Oz to Take Lead of Medicare and Medicaid Agency

3 hours ago

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

4 hours ago

Pence Will Receive the Profile in Courage Award From the JFK Library for His Actions on Jan. 6

4 hours ago

Politics Turns Ugly for a Conservative Running for Fresno State Student Body President

5 hours ago

Pentagon’s Watchdog to Review Hegseth’s Use of Signal App to Convey Plans for Houthi Strike

5 hours ago

President Trump’s Tariffs Could Be the Political Tipping Point

6 hours ago

Order That Kept Water in the Kern River Reversed by 5th District Court of Appeal

6 hours ago

As Dem Candidates for Governor Increase, They Wait for Harris to Decide

6 hours ago

Trump Fires NSC Officials a Day After Far-Right Activist Raises Concerns to Him

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he’s fired “some” White House National Security Council officials, ...

10 seconds ago

President Donald Trump speaks during an event to announce new tariffs in the Rose Garden at the White House, Wednesday, April 2, 2025, in Washington. (AP/Mark Schiefelbein)
10 seconds ago

Trump Fires NSC Officials a Day After Far-Right Activist Raises Concerns to Him

46 minutes ago

China Halts Approvals for New US Investment Projects

1 hour ago

Measles Spreads to Central Texas; 5 States Have Active Outbreaks

1 hour ago

Trump Tariff Fears Erase $2 Trillion From US Stocks

1 hour ago

Startup Offers Controversial Microplastic Blood Cleansing Treatment

Dr. Mehmet Oz, President Donald Trump's pick to lead the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, seated right, gives a thumbs-up alongside his wife Lisa Oz, seated left, with friends and family after he testified at his confirmation hearing before the Senate Finance Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP/Ben Curtis)
3 hours ago

Senate Confirms Mehmet Oz to Take Lead of Medicare and Medicaid Agency

4 hours ago

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

Vice President Mike Pence hands the electoral certificate from the state of Arizona to Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., as he presides over a joint session of Congress as it convenes to count the Electoral College votes cast in November's election, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. (AP File)
4 hours ago

Pence Will Receive the Profile in Courage Award From the JFK Library for His Actions on Jan. 6

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend