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Description:

In a novel that has been compared to the works of Richard Wright, James Baldwin, and William Faulkner, Ernest J. Gaines demonstrates the ways in which people stubbornly declare the value of their lives in a time and place where those lives seemingly count for nothing, and where the imprisoned may find freedom even in the moment of their death. (© Random House)

Curriculum Resources:

• A Lesson Before Dying - Urban Dreams lesson materials developed by Mary Scott for her grade 9 students at Skyline High School, Oakland, California.
  http://www.urbandreamsproject.org/lessonplans/lessonbefore2/l
  
  
• A Lesson Before Dying - Teacher's Guide by Hal Hager
  Note to Teachers; Preparing to read; Structure, Teaching, and Plot; Character and Conflict; Setting and Society; Themes and Motifs; Imagery and Language; Quotations for Discussion and Assignment or further reading
  http://www.randomhouse.com/acmart/teacherguides/lesson.html (Random House; )
  
  
• A Lesson Before Dying by Leslie Bradley
  Study guide; assignments
  http://members.accessus.net/~bradley/page10.html (Mrs. Bradley's English Pages; )
  
  
• A Lesson Before Dying, 1993
  Author (Biography, A conversation, SF Chronicle article); Teaching information
  http://www.educeth.ch/english/readinglist/gainese/ (EducETH; )
  
  
• A Lesson Before Dying
  historical context links
  http://www.cmi.k12.il.us/Urbana/uhs/infotech/lesson.htm (Urbana High School; )

Websites about this book:

• A Lesson Before Dying
  First chapter, discussion forum, reading group guide, teacher's guide
  http://www.randomhouse.com/vintage/gaines/ (Random House; )

Author Biography:

The world into which Ernest James Gaines was born--on January 15, 1933--is essentially the world which he has distilled into the dense and complex world of his six novels and his stories. The land around River Lake Plantation--near New Roads, Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana--is the land around the Pichot plantation, near Bayonne, St. Raphael Parish, presented in A Lesson Before Dying. More... (© Random House; )