A Gathering of Old Men

Ernest J. Gaines was born on January 15, 1933 on the River Lake Plantation located in Oscar, Louisiana. His ancestors had lived on the same plantation since slavery, staying even after the emancipation to work the land as sharecroppers. When he was eight, his parents were separated. But one woman influences him the most, whom was his aunt, Augusteen Jefferson, who was crippled from birth, who also crawled to do anything, from cooking for the family, to working in the plantation. At an age of nine, Gaines was already digging potatoes for fifty cents a day.

When Gaines was 15, he went to California to live with his mother and stepfather. His stepfather didn't let him be on the street; for fear that he would get into trouble with the police, so Gaines spent most of his time at the library instead. It leads to his interest in literature. Yet, he preferred to study European authors whose works are about peasants, with experiences he learned, and he avoided American writers because he disliked how they portrayed African-Americans in their stories.

Gaines went to San Francisco State University and won a writing fellowship to Stanford. But before he attended Stanford; he spent two years serving in the army. He wrote his first novel, Catherine Carmier, at the age of 17, but it wasn't published for another 14 years. Gaines went on to write many novels and a short story, such A Lesson Before Dying, was published in 1993. It gained a lot attention and he won the National Book Critics' Circle Award. Today Gaines lives with his wife Dianne in Oscar, Louisiana, on land that was part of his family plantation, which he grew up. He is also a writer at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette.