Conversations with Ernest Gaines

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 fictionThe Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman A Gathering of Old Men and The Sky is GrayGaines 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 lifeincluding his marriage and his receiving a MacArthur Prize.