Literary Giant Ernest Gaines Dies Age 86

Novelist Ernest J. Gaines, who explored the hardships of African Americans living in rural Louisiana, died in his home in Oscar, Louisiana, on November 5. The acclaimed author of “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” was 86.

Gaines died in his sleep of cardiac arrest, the Baton Rouge Area Foundation confirmed to The Associated Press (AP).

“It is with a…