The Ernest Gaines Center also confiirmed the novelist's death on Twitter.
Gaines, who was presented with the 2012 National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama for his contributions as an author and teacher, had four of his novels made into movies. That included his 1971 novel about Jane Pittman, a young slave at the end of the Civil War who lived to participate in the civil rights movement during the 1960s. The book was adapted into a 1974 television movie starring Cicely Tyson.
It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to Ernest J. Gaines, a native Louisianan who used his immense vision and literary talents to tell the stories of African Americans in the South. #lagov #lalege https://t.co/1Pn3tqHdLH
— John Bel Edwards (@LouisianaGov) November 5, 2019
The Ernest Gaines Center also confiirmed the novelist's death on Twitter.
Gaines, who was presented with the 2012 National Medal of Arts by President Barack Obama for his contributions as an author and teacher, had four of his novels made into movies. That included his 1971 novel about Jane Pittman, a young slave at the end of the Civil War who lived to participate in the civil rights movement during the 1960s. The book was adapted into a 1974 television movie starring Cicely Tyson.
Louisiana literary figure Ernest J. Gaines died Tuesday at the age of 86.
— The Advocate (@theadvocatebr) November 5, 2019
Take a look at part of his life in pictures. https://t.co/KJZXDnrZEb pic.twitter.com/xxQDadXzBv
"I was born here, stayed here, lived here until I was 15. It was because I could not go to a high school around here, in New Roads or Pointe Coupee," Gaines told WBRZ in February.
In addition to novels, Gaines wrote short stories and taught at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette as a writer-in-residence from 1981 to 2004, The Advocate reported.
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