SOURCE: "Ernest J. Gaines," in Publishers Weekly, Vol. 240, No. 21, May 24, 1993, pp. 62, 64.

[In the following excerpt, Summer examines the influence of Gaines's life on his novels.]

Inspired by Turgenev's depictions of Russia's serfs, with whom he found parallels to the plantation slaves, [Gaines] began to write.

"I was 17 when I thought I could write a novel and send it to New York and get it published. But I didn't know a damn thing about doing it; I didn't even know how to type. I started in longhand, but my mother rented me a typewriter, which I typed on with one finger. I must have used the cheapest paper I could find, because we couldn't afford anything else. I cut the paper in half, the size of a book, and typed on both sides, single space. I thought it was pretty good. I wrapped in it brown paper, tied a...