File, Digital Video

Marygrove College
Contemporary American Authors Lecture Series
Ernest J. Gaines Discussion 4/25/98

Digital video captured from a Video8 tape containing raw footage of the Ernest J. Gaines' Breakfast Informal Discussion program from Marygrove College's Contemporary American Authors Lecture series. The program was held at Marygrove College's Madame Cadillac Building on April 25, 1998.

The recording begins with a series of shots of pinned up printouts serving as opening title cards. The footage from the actual event begins with an introduction from Dr. Loretta Woodard. She then passes the microphone to Ernest J. Gaines who speaks to the attendees from an arm chair beside the podium.

Ernest Gaines then speaks about his experiences as a young reader and his early efforts as a writer. Dr. Woodard then asks the audience for question for Gaines. In his answers to these questions, Gaines talks about "creating characters with character," Grant's role as a teacher in "A Lesson Before Dying," how "A Long Day in November" is constructed around episodes focusing on characters of progressing age, his writing process, the shift in narrators in "A Lesson Before Dying," an anecdote about one of his students' efforts to get the readers' attention, the research and conversations he does to write about the past, his aunt's influence on characters in his works, the television adaption of "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," different narrative voices, how Walter Zeno informed "A Gathering of Old Men," religion, what he brought when he moved from Louisiana to California, an early manuscript that he destroyed, working titles for his books, writing from the perspective of a child, how "The Sky Is Gray" reflected his own experiences with segregation, the inspiration for the character Candy in "A Gathering of Old Men," and when his next book is coming.

After answering the final question, a student presents both Ernest and Diane Gaines with gifts before the recording ends.