We offer scholars valuable archival resources to conduct their research and educational tools that provide historical resources about Dr. Ernest J. Gaines. We are dedicated to creating a digital archive that will allow research of Gaines' work possible from around the globe.
The Ernest J. Gaines Center at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette is an international center for scholarship on Dr. Ernest J. Gaines and his work. The Center honors the work of UL Lafayette’s Writer-in-Residence Emeritus and provides a space for scholars and students to work with the Gaines papers and manuscripts.
Born in 1933 on a plantation near New Roads, Louisiana, Dr. Gaines based his award-winning novels on the African American experience in the rural South. His works include The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971) and A Lesson Before Dying (1993), both later produced as award-winning films.
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Gaines’s generous donation of his early papers and manuscripts and some artifacts to Edith Garland Dupré Library provided the foundation for the Center’s collection. The Center will expand the collection on Gaines to include all books, journal articles, essays, interviews, theses, and dissertations on Gaines and his work.
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Monday – Thursday
7:30 a.m. – 5 p.m.
Friday
7:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.
Saturday – Sunday
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