Gaines, Ernest J. (Vol. 18) - Introduction

Gaines, Ernest J. 1933–

Gaines is a black American novelist and short story writer. His fiction deals with the victimization of poor, uneducated blacks, often in settings drawn from Gaines's native southern Louisiana. Character portrayal in Gaines's work is realistic and convincing and has been compared to that of Faulkner. The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is his best known work. (See also CLC, Vols. 3, 11, and Contemporary Authors, Vols. 9-12, rev. ed.)