Ernest J. Gaines (1933–2019)
Forfatter af A Lesson Before Dying
Om forfatteren
Ernest James Gaines was born on January 15, 1933, on the River Lake Plantation, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana. His 1993 novel, A Lesson Before Dying, won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. Gaines has been a MacArthur Foundation fellow, awarded the National Humanities Medal, and vis mere inducted into the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) as a Chevalier. Although he was educated in California (at San Francisco State College and Stanford University), his fiction is dominated by images and characters drawn from rural Louisiana, where he was born and raised. Unquestionably the most recognizable, and probably the best, of Gaines's novels is The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971), a fictional account of the long life of a black woman born a slave on a Louisiana plantation. Through the stories of the many fascinating people who touch Jane's life, Gaines presents not only a moving perspective on the struggles of African Americans but also a social history of the United States since the Civil War. It is a testimony to Gaines's skill as a writer and storyteller that many people believe Jane Pittman was a real person. Indeed, the novel is frequently misshelved in the biography section of bookstores. In 1993 Gaines also won the Dos Passos Prize and in 2000 he won the National Humanities Medal. Of Gaines's other works, Bloodline (1976), a collection of five short stories, stands out for its powerful portrayals of young men in search of self-respect and dignity. In 2013 President Barack Obama presented Mr. Gaines with the National Medal of Arts. Ernest J. Gaines passed away on November 5,2019 at this home in Oscar, LA at the age of 86. (Bowker Author Biography) vis mindre
Image credit: Ian Edelstein / Seattle Municipal Archives
Værker af Ernest J. Gaines
Three W's: Tears of Pain and Joy 1 eksemplar
Associated Works
Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction (1990) — Bidragyder — 266 eksemplarer
The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1899-1967: The Classic Anthology (1967) — Bidragyder — 170 eksemplarer
Growing Up in the South: An Anthology of Modern Southern Literature (1991) — Bidragyder — 138 eksemplarer
Calling the Wind: Twentieth Century African-American Short Stories (1992) — Bidragyder — 95 eksemplarer
Satte nøgleord på
Almen Viden
- Juridisk navn
- Gaines, Ernest James
- Fødselsdato
- 1933-01-15
- Dødsdag
- 2019-11-05
- Begravelsessted
- Mount Zion Baptist Church Cemetery, Port Hudson, Louisiana, USA
- Køn
- male
- Nationalitet
- USA
- Fødested
- River Lake Plantation, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, USA
- Dødssted
- Oscar, Louisiana, USA
- Bopæl
- Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, USA
Vallejo, California, USA
San Francisco, California, USA
Lafayette, Louisiana, USA - Uddannelse
- San Francisco State College
Stanford University - Erhverv
- novelist
professor (creative writing ∙ University of Louisiana at Lafayette) - Organisationer
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (1998)
Fellowship of Southern Writers (charter member)
University of Louisiana at Lafayette - Priser og hædersbevisninger
- National Humanities Medal (2000)
American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award (1987)
John Dos Passos Prize (1993)
Louisiana Writer Award (2000)
F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Outstanding Achievement in American Fiction (2001)
Cleanth Brooks Medal for Lifetime Achievement (2011) (vis alle 10)
Sidney Lanier Prize for Southern Literature (2012)
MacArthur Fellowship (1993)
Guggenheim Fellowship (1972 ∙ Fiction)
National Medal of Arts (2013) - Kort biografi
- 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.
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A lesson before dying af Ernest J. Gaines
Abandoned 43% of the way through. At this point, not much had happened, plot-wise, yet there was profanity, including God's name used in vain, and some sexual content. Not worth finishing.
Dans la Louisiane, dans les années 30, un jeune Noir se fait condamné à mort. Sa marraine s'allie à l'instituteur et au révérant pour l'accompagner vers la mort. C'est un livre absolument bouleversant mais magnifique qui montre le fonctionnement de la communauté et le rôle de chacun, une tapisserie riche et complexe où l'éducation, la foi et la couleur de peau marque chaque personne. Plus d'une fois j'ai eu les larmes aux yeux: c'est un roman complexe, d'une finesse extrême. Magistral!… (mere)
The writing style of this author was very strange. It's almost the level of high school or less. The dialogue between characters was immature and very repetitive, literally once there was a No. Yes. No. Yes. No. Yes going on between two people. So, I would give this part about a 2-star.
On the other hand the storyline was awesome and would absolutely make a GREAT movie and gets at least a four star, so I gave an average 3-star rating overall. Now, imagine this:
The story takes place in 1970's Marshall, Louisiana, on the St. Charles Bayou when racism and racial tensions are still very high and the KKK was trying to still hang around and keep the blacks down and in their place. A black worker on the sugar cane plantation kills a longtime Cajun resident and descendant of the Marshall plantation, Beau Boutan, 35 years old, who thought he could still live by the slavery rules and insult and whip and even kill a black person who stood up for himself. So, Charlie killed him in self protection. Candy, Beau's cousin, who runs the sugarcane business operations and loves and fights for the rights of the blacks still living in huts on the plantation, tries to protect the blacks knowing the KKK klan will be coming by and wanting blood. She gathers all the old black men left around to come and bring their 12-gauge shotgun and a blank 5-shell to gather on the porch and around the house to protect Mathus, who she thought killed Beau, but it was really Charlie. But they had also secretly stashed some real rounds at the back of the house and everytime one went out to the outhouse, they grab a bullet or two. So, all the old men, around 15 of them, 80 years old and some even older are there and they all claim they were the one who shot Beau.
The sheriff shows up and is at first very hard on them until he starts to hear each of their stories of why they killed Beau. It was for what's not there any more...their mom &dad and what they put up with, someones uncle no longer here, someones brother who was beat down and killed because his mule beat the white man's big tractor, etc...They each told their story.
The KKK, with Luke Wills in charge, head out there at night and there's a bit of a shootout. The fat sheriff is maimed right off the bat. Later there's another big shootout where everyone was shooting everywhere and Charlie and Luke Wills end up dead. During the hearing at court, all the old men showed up broken...scratches, cuts, bandaged here and there, crutches, casts. And to top it all off, they had the courts rolling with their nicknames such as: Clabber, Dirty Red, Coot, Chimley, Rooster, etc...which the old black men kept using instead of their real names when telling their story.
----------
MOVIE: A Gathering of Old Men (1987), starring Louis Gossett Jr, Richard Widmark and Holly Hunter.… (mere)
On the other hand the storyline was awesome and would absolutely make a GREAT movie and gets at least a four star, so I gave an average 3-star rating overall. Now, imagine this:
The story takes place in 1970's Marshall, Louisiana, on the St. Charles Bayou when racism and racial tensions are still very high and the KKK was trying to still hang around and keep the blacks down and in their place. A black worker on the sugar cane plantation kills a longtime Cajun resident and descendant of the Marshall plantation, Beau Boutan, 35 years old, who thought he could still live by the slavery rules and insult and whip and even kill a black person who stood up for himself. So, Charlie killed him in self protection. Candy, Beau's cousin, who runs the sugarcane business operations and loves and fights for the rights of the blacks still living in huts on the plantation, tries to protect the blacks knowing the KKK klan will be coming by and wanting blood. She gathers all the old black men left around to come and bring their 12-gauge shotgun and a blank 5-shell to gather on the porch and around the house to protect Mathus, who she thought killed Beau, but it was really Charlie. But they had also secretly stashed some real rounds at the back of the house and everytime one went out to the outhouse, they grab a bullet or two. So, all the old men, around 15 of them, 80 years old and some even older are there and they all claim they were the one who shot Beau.
The sheriff shows up and is at first very hard on them until he starts to hear each of their stories of why they killed Beau. It was for what's not there any more...their mom &dad and what they put up with, someones uncle no longer here, someones brother who was beat down and killed because his mule beat the white man's big tractor, etc...They each told their story.
The KKK, with Luke Wills in charge, head out there at night and there's a bit of a shootout. The fat sheriff is maimed right off the bat. Later there's another big shootout where everyone was shooting everywhere and Charlie and Luke Wills end up dead. During the hearing at court, all the old men showed up broken...scratches, cuts, bandaged here and there, crutches, casts. And to top it all off, they had the courts rolling with their nicknames such as: Clabber, Dirty Red, Coot, Chimley, Rooster, etc...which the old black men kept using instead of their real names when telling their story.
----------
MOVIE: A Gathering of Old Men (1987), starring Louis Gossett Jr, Richard Widmark and Holly Hunter.… (mere)
The debt is never finished as long as we stand for this.
What an incredible story.
What an incredible story.
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