The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

"Grand, robust, a rich and big novel."--Alice Walker, The New York Times Book Review



"In [Jane Pittman], Ernest Gaines has created a legendary figure. . . . Gaines's novel brings to mind other great works: The Odyssey, for the way his heroine's travels manage to summarize the American history of her race, and Huckleberry Finn, for the clarity of [Pittman's] voice, for her rare capacity to sort through the mess of years and things to find the one true story of it all."--Newsweek



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.