Lesson Before Dying (Gaines)

Author Bio 
• Birth—January 15, 1933
• Where—Pointe Coupee, Louisiana, USA
• Education—B.A., San Francisco State University; fellowiship
  to Stanford University
• Awards—Wallace Stegner Fellow, 1957; National Endowment
  for the Arts grant, 1967; Dos Passos Prize, 1993; MacArthur
  Foundation fellow, 1993; National Book Critics Award, 1993;
  National Humanities Medal, 2000; he American Academy of
  Arts and Letters, 2000; Chevalier, Order of Arts and Letters 
  (France), 2000.
• Currently—lives in San Francisco and Oscar, Louisiana


Ernest Gaines was born on a plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish near New Roads, Louisiana, which is the Bayonne of all his fictional works. He is writer-in-residence emeritus at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. In 1993 Gaines received the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for his lifetime achievements.

In addition to The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Mr. Gaines is also the author of A Lesson Before Dying, A Gathering of Old Men, Bloodline, and Of Love and Dust.

In 1996 he was named a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, one of France’s highest decorations. He and his wife, Dianne, live in Oscar, Louisiana. (From Wikipedia.)