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Gaines, Ernest (1933– )
Most of Ernest Gaines’s fiction is set in Louisiana,
in a community not unlike the one where he was
born on January 15, 1933. New Roads, Louisiana,
had once been a plantation and did not really con-
stitute a “town,” but Gaines lived there until he was
15, attending school in a one-room building. The
family moved to Vallejo, California, in Gaines’s
sophomore year. After high school graduation,
he served in the army for two years. Following his
discharge, he enrolled at San Francisco State Col-
lege, where he majored in English. He graduated
in 1957, the same year he won the Wallace Stegner
Award for Fiction. His success as a writer encour-
aged him to continue his studies at Stanford Uni-
versity in its creative writing program.
Early in his career, Gaines attempted to write
several novels, but he did not find his “voice” until
he returned to Louisiana for research. His first
novel, Catherine Carmier was published in 1964;
Of Love and Dust followed in 1967. Of Love and
Dust did gain some critical attention, though most
reviewers considered the novel sentimental. Nev-
ertheless, Gaines became known as a promising
young writer. And though a collection of short
stories, Bloodlines, appeared in 1968, Gaines’s po-
tential and promise was not quite met until the
publication of The AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS JANE
PITTMAN in 1971. Gaines received a Guggenheim
Fellowship in 1973 and completed In My Father’s

House in 1978. Gaines published A Gathering

of Old Men in 1983 but did not publish another

major work until 1993. The novel A Lesson Before

Dying drew critical acclaim and garnered Gaines a

Book Critics’ Circle Award. The same year, Gaines

was presented with a MacArthur Foundation “Ge-

nius” Award.

Gaines’s work continues to draw both critical

and popular attention. Several of his novels have

been made into successful television movies. His

reception is the result of his ability to render faith-

fully the lives of genuine and memorable charac-

ters. He also captures the energy and spirit of the

rural South, its voices and its people, as well as the

land itself. Often compared to William Faulkner,

Gaines also examines the darker themes of south-

ern history. His first novel, Catherine Carmier, deals

with color prejudice within the African-American

community. Its protagonist, a light-skinned Cre-

ole woman, falls in love with a much darker Afri-

can American, Jackson Bradley. Their love story is

complicated by their families’ disapproval of their

relationship. She is “accidentally” killed for her in-

fraction against the community and its values.

The impact of prejudice on love relationships

is also a central theme in Of Love and Dust. Gaines

investigates the nature of interracial relationships

on a plantation in Louisiana. The main charac-

ter, Marcus, falls in love with the fragile, white

wife of Marshall Hebert, the plantation owner.



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