Fans of Ernest J. Gaines probably realized that when they read 1969's The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and 1993's A Lesson Before Dying, both brilliantly told stories describing the struggles of African-American characters in the Deep South.

Now, Gaines brings us Mozart and Leadbelly: Stories and Essays, an illuminating work that tells us much about how one of the finest contemporary Southern writers developed his voice. It could easily be titled The Autobiography of Mr. Ernest J. Gaines. In the series of six essays, Gaines describes his youth on a Louisiana plantation, which he left in 1948, and his later career as a writer in California before finally moving back to the Bayou State. These essays shed light on why Gaines' work is often poignant and always told in a style that rings true.

Gaines tells us that reviewers of The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman were convinced that Miss Pittman was a real person whose memories he recorded to capture the tale of a 110-year-old African American woman and her life experiences ranging from slavery to black militancy in the 1960s. Not so, says Gaines. He drew the character from memory. During his childhood, friends of his aunt, Augusteen Jefferson, would gather on her porch and talk for hours. His aunt couldn't get out to visit herself. She had suffered an undiagnosed childhood disease that left her unable to walk. Some of her friends who came to visit were illiterate, so Gaines helped them write letters. In later years, Gaines realized he was compelled to still write their letters, their stories -- but in the form of novels.

Not all of Gaines' influences came from people he personally knew. As a boy he plunged into public library shelves to immerse himself in the classic novels of Russian, French and American writers. He delved into classical music, and fell in love with the grace and structure of the works of Mozart.

He found few African-American novelists after whom to model himself. So Gaines turned to the stories told by blues artists. He recognized the blues as its own form of prose. He believes that there is as much to learn from Bessie Smith and Leadbelly as there is from Mozart.

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