Lesson Before Dying, A

An encyclopedia entry for African American novelist and short-story author Ernest J. Gaines is presented. Gaines is best known for his novel "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," but his later novels have earned at least as much praise as his breakthrough novel and a raft of awards and fellowships. His stories are set primarily in the American South, specifically Louisiana's rural African American communities.

Search within this publication for "Ernest Gaines" for bibliographical information.

Chapter 4 of the book "From Richard Wright to Toni Morrison: Ethics in Modern & Postmodern American Narrative" is presented. It focuses on the novel "A Gathering of Old Men," written by Ernest J. Gaines. It is indicated that this novel is the best example of one's immediate family or local neighborhood should be broadened in time through the participation in different communities. According to the article, the concept of community is the sense of belonging within a connection that is exclusive.

Ernest Gaines: A Study in Domestic Exile.
Chapter from Critical Insights: American Writers in Exile. p104-117.
Writers profiled and analyzed in this volume include Henry James, Ezra Pound, James Baldwin, Richard Wright, and members of the 'Lost Generation' such as Ernest Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and T.S. Eliot.