Conversations with Ernest Gaines

by Ernest J. Gaines, John Lowe (Editor)

The winner in 1994 of the National Book Critics Circle Award for A Lesson Before Dying , Gaines, whose career spans more than thirty-five years, continues to receive increasing critical and popular attention. In the community of southern authors, he finds his natural place. “Southern writers,” he says, “have much more in common than differences. They have in common a certain point of view as well.”

Through television productions of his fiction― The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman , A Gathering of Old Men , and “The Sky is Gray”―Gaines has become widely known and appreciated. Although focused principally upon African American life in the Deep South, his writing bears strong influence of European authors.

In these interviews, two of which have never before been printed, Ernest Gaines casts a retrospective light upon his long and productive career. Drawn from journals, magazines, and newspapers, the interviews are occasions for Gaines to recall his childhood, his “bohemian” days in San Francisco, his long effort to get his work published, and recent events in his life―including his marriage and his receiving a MacArthur Prize.

360 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1995

About the author

Ernest James Gaines 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.
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.

Reviews

[C · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a wonderful and informative read. Yes, it is repetitive, but as you move through the book his answers change in color and specificity. Gaines speaks exhaustively to the style, form, technique, research, and inspiration in his books. Gaines is a very important author who instead of writing the protest novel demanded of him wrote the protest novel that was unique to him and was heavily criticized for it. His writings have tremendous historical significance because they focus on people usually ignored in celebrated Black works; poor, uneducated, rural, black women and children, and southern. The time he spends on the technique and use of dialogue is more than noteworthy.