Skip to content

Conversations with Ernest Gaines

Conversations with Ernest Gaines

Biography & MemoirEssays
Pages
335
Published
1995
Language
English

Synopsis

This collection of interviews offers a retrospective look at the long and productive career of Ernest Gaines, winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award. Gaines discusses his childhood, his early struggles to get published, and recent life events, including his marriage and receiving a MacArthur Prize. The conversations explore his place among Southern authors and the strong European influences on his writing, which primarily focuses on African-American life in the Deep South.

Prose complexity
7/10

Vibe

InformativeReflectiveIntellectual

Genres

Biography & Memoir Essays

About the author

E
Ernest J. Gaines

Ernest J. Gaines was born on a plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana, the oldest of 12 children. His parents moved to Vallejo, California during World War II, so he was raised by his aunt, who was crippled and limited to crawling to get around. His was the fifth generation of share croppers to live on the plantation, and his family lived in a house that had formerly been slave quarters. During the summers, he picked cotton, and during the winters he was educated at the the plantation chu...