A Lesson Before Dying is Ernest J. Gaines's eighth book, and is in some ways his most autobiographical. Many aspects of the novel are drawn from Gaines's personal experiences growing up in Oscar, Louisiana. For example, the plantation school where Grant Wiggins teaches is based on the elementary school Gaines attended. Bayonne, the fictional town in Louisiana in which the novel is set, is based on Gaines's hometown; it is also the setting for several of his other books, including his early success, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman.
The novel is set in 1948, ten years before the Civil Rights Movement would first begin to appear. The problems and successes of African-Americans...
