Ernest J. Gaines, a MacArthur fellow best known for the book The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, died at his home in Oscar, La., Tuesday. He was 86. [mc4wp_form id=”6042″]
In an obituary on their website, the Ernest J. Gaines Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, described the author as leaving behind a legacy that is “nothing short of brilliant.”
Born Ernest James Gaines on Jan. 15, 1933 on a plantation in Pointe Coupee Parish, La., Gaines grew up the son of sharecroppers. As he told the Center in a video interview, he only attended school five to five-and-a-half months out of the year, and spent the rest of the year working in the fields.
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