DuBose Heyward

Dramatization in 1927 of

Porgy

(1925), novel of American writer Edwin DuBose Heyward based

Porgy and Bess

, folk opera of George Gershwin.

This best known work of this white author based the namesake play, which he co-authored with his wife Dorothy Heyward, and in turn this music.

Thomas Heyward, Jr., his ancestor, signed Declaration of Independence of the United States and served as a representative of South Carolina. As a child and young man, frequently ill Heyward also caught polio at eighteen years of age, then contracted typhoid fever at twenty years of age, and fell ill with pleurisy in the following year. He described as "a miserable student," uninterested in learning and dropped high school in his first year at fourteen years of age despite a lifelong and serious interest in literature; writing verses and stories, he passed the time in his sickbed.

In 1913, Heyward wrote a one-act play,

An Artistic Triumph

, produced in a local theater. This minor success on derivative work reportedly showed little promise but encouraged him to pursue a literary career. In 1917, he, convalescing from his illnesses, began to devote seriously to fiction and poetry. In 1918, his first published short story, "The Brute," appeared in Pagan, a Magazine for Eudaemonists. In the next year, he met Hervey Allen, then teaching at the nearby Porter military academy. They became close friends and formed the Poetry Society of South Carolina, which helped spark a revival of southern literature; Heyward edited the society's yearbooks until 1924 and contributed much of their content. His poetry was well received, earning him a Contemporary Verse award in 1921. In 1922 he and Allen jointly published a collection, Carolina Chansons: Legends of the Low Country and they jointly edited a southern issue of Poetry magazine. During this period Heyward and a friend, Henry T. O'Neill, had operated a successful insurance and real estate company and by 1924 Heyward had achieved a measure of financial independence, allowing him to give up business and devote himself full time to literature. Between stints of writing he supplemented his income by lecturing on southern literature at colleges.[3]

The poet and playwright Langston Hughes said Heyward was one who saw "with his white eyes, wonderful, poetic qualities in the inhabitants of Catfish Row that makes them come alive."[4] Biographer James M. Hutchisson characterizes Porgy as "the first major southern novel to portray blacks without condescension" and states that the libretto to Porgy and Bess was largely Heyward's work.[citation needed] Many critics have believed that Heyward was sympathetic in his portrayal of the Southern black. Others, however, have noted that the characters in Porgy, though viewed sympathetically, are still viewed for the most part as stereotypes.[citation needed]

Heyward and his wife Dorothy, whom he met at the MacDowell Colony in 1922, spent many years in Charleston, where he taught at the Porter Military Academy, while observing and thinking deeply about the lives of blacks of that area. His mother participated in an amateur Southern singing society performing Gullah songs, and he sometimes joined her. It was open to anyone whose family had lived on a plantation, whether as owner or slave.[citation needed] In Charleston, Heyward found inspiration for his book, including what would become the setting (Catfish Row) and the main character (a disabled man named Porgy). Literary critics cast Heyward as an authority on Southern literature, later writing, "Heyward's attention to detail and reality of the Southern black's lifestyle was not only sympathetic but something that no one had ever seen done before."[citation needed]

Opening on Broadway in 1927, the non-musical play "Porgy" was a considerable success, more so than the Gershwin opera Porgy and Bess e