About Ernest Gaines

Ernest J. Gaines, born January 15, 1933, is an acclaimed American author whose novels and short stories have been awarded numerous honors and have been taught in countless classrooms. His best-known fiction includes his 1993 novel, A Lesson Before Dying, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and A Gathering of Old Men.

A Lesson Before Dying won the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. A novel that references much of his own personal history, it was also a pick of Oprah’s Book Club in 1997.

In 2004 Gaines was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. He is a MacArthur Foundation fellow, was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was awarded the National Humanities Medal.

Addtional Reading

In May 4, 2001, Ernest Gaines was interviewed by the Academy of Achievement in San Antonio, Texas. During this interview, he discussed his keys to success. The following are video excerpts from this interview:

• Passion
• Courage
• VisionVision 2Vision 3
• American DreamAmerican Dream 2
• PerseverancePerseverance 2Perseverance 3Perseverance 4