The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman - Ernest J. Gaines

Originally published in 1971, this novel spans 100 years of American history--from the early 1860s to the onset of the civil rights movement in the 1960s--in following the life of the elderly Jane Pittman, who witnessed those turbulent years. Miss Jane Pittman. She is one of the most unforgettable heroines in American fiction, a woman whose life has come to symbolize the struggle for freedom, dignity, and justice. Ernest J. Gaines's now-classic novel--written as an autobiography--spans one hundred years of Miss Jane's remarkable life, from her childhood as a slave on a Louisiana plantation to the Civil Rights era of the 1960s. It is a story of courage and survival, history, bigotry, and hope--as seen through the eyes of a woman who lived through it all. A historical tour de force, a triumph of fiction, Miss Jane's eloquent narrative brings to life an important story of race in America--and stands as a landmark work for our time.