The Response to The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman

The Ernest J. Gaines Center's archives contain numerous letters of praise for the The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman (1971). Authors and activists such as James Baldwin, Alice Walker, Jesse Jackson, James Allen McPherson, and John A. Williams. Baldwin wrote to Gaines saying, "I think you are an extraordinary artist indeed and Jane Pittman is a most moving, most beautiful, most truthful book." James Allen McPherson claims that Gaines' novel fulfilled Richard Wright's 1945 prophecy. Wright stated, "There is a great novel yet to be written about the Negro in the South; just a simple, straight, easy, great novel telling how they live and how they die; what they see and how they feel each day; what they do in the winter, spring, summer, and fall. Just a novel telling of the quiet ritual of their lives. Such a book is really needed." McPherson says The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is this book because it presents a rich folk character in the oral tradition with a respect for ancestors and their wisdom. Carrying the thought of ancestors further, Alice Walker wrote, "My reaction to Mr. Gaines's work is unusually emotional. For example, it has become quite ordinary for me, in the middle of reading one of his extraordinary paragraphs, to suddenly stop and thank our ancestors, Mr. Gaines's and mine, that Mr. Gaines exists."

All of the laudatory comments above referred to the novel. These do not include the multitudes of reviews, letters, and other items housed within the archives relate to the film version. While many praise the film, some have comments that congratulate Gaines on the film but point out its differences from the novel. Overall, though, these letters express the overall importance of the film in 1974. I discussed this briefly in a previous post, but I will let the letters and reviews speak for themselves here. Bill Decker, an agent at the Dial Press who published the novel, wrote to Gaines and says that he and his wife thoroughly enjoyed the film and expected it, based on advanced reviews, to be as good as the book. However, he laments "that  millions of people who saw the film will never really get to know Miss Jane, your Miss Jane." Even with this caveat, Decker concluded the letter stating that "it is going to do a lot of good." What that good is, Decker did not say, but it could be assumed that he is referring to race relations. Donna Schrader, another employee at the Dial Press, wrote that she spoke with an African American mother of three after the film's debut. The mother said her children, even the seven year old, watched the entire movie. She went on to describe seeing the Adam Clayton Powell exhibit at the Adam Clayton Powell Memorial Library  and overhearing visitors say, "Wait till the children see this. Wait till the children see this." To Schrader, that is the same thought she had after seeing the film. The following generations need to understand what came before, the struggles and the joys, and this is partly what Gaines' novel and the film version provided, a history that did not appear in the textbooks students read in schools but one that focused on "his people." 

The film, which won nine Emmys, showed that the nation was prepared for stories on television that centered around African American characters. It also, as mentioned in the previous post, made some realize the long enduring oppression that African Americans have experienced in this country. While a work of art can't undo 400 years of racism, it can highlight the problems and cause some to reevaluate their previous thoughts in regards to race. Gaines even says as much in a newspaper article about his visits to the set during filming. Gaines describes speaking with "an elderly white man" at lunch. The man knew the area, and looking around at the tables, he noticed the people eating. After introducing Gaines to his son, who worked on the film, the man simply said, "This is going to be a great picture. . . . I know it. Just look at what's happening here. Look at the people sitting and eating together, working together, talking. You think this could have happened 25 years ago? No, things changed." Gaines ends the article there, voicing the change that can occur through art. Forty years after the film, there are still problems, but works like The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman can, and have, in some small way, provide individuals with the information needed to reevaluate their positions in relation to those problems, hopefully causing people to look for solutions instead of perpetuating the problems.