Porgy's Ghost: The Life and Works of Dorothy Heyward and Her Contribution to an American Classic

by Harlan Greene

Overview

On the world stage, the opera Porgy and Bess is acclaimed as a distinctively American, yet universal, classic. Though scholars and the popular press have discussed it for nearly one hundred years, no one has factored in the major contributions of one of its forgotten authors—until now. Besides serving as a brief biography that illuminates Dorothy Heyward’s personal and professional life, which ranges from lighthearted whimsy to a descent into madness, what emerges in Porgy’s Ghost is a correction to a longstanding omission of Dorothy Heyward’s influence on Porgy, the novel written by her husband; Porgy, the play, mostly her creation; and Porgy and Bess, the opera often credited solely to George and Ira Gershwin. Fighting to restore her husband DuBose Heyward’s name to that work, she hid her own contributions to maximize his. Based on years of research in her archives and previously unknown materials, author Harlan Greene reveals a cypher of a woman who, in her lifetime and long after, was dismissed as unimportant.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780820375090
Publisher:	University of Georgia Press
Publication date:	11/15/2025
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

HARLAN GREENE is emeritus Scholar in Residence at the College of Charleston’s Addlestone Library. He was also director of Archival Services at the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, and he founded the archives at the Charleston County Public Library. Greene is chair of Charleston’s Historical Commission. An award-winning novelist, he has also authored or coauthored several nonfiction works, including Mr. Skylark: John Bennett and the Charleston Renaissance (Georgia) and Slave Badges and the Slave-Hire System in Charleston, South Carolina, 1783–1865. He is also the coeditor of Renaissance in Charleston: Art and Life in the Carolina Low Country, 1900–1940 (Georgia).

HARLAN GREENE is emeritus Scholar in Residence at the College of Charleston’s Addlestone Library. He was also director of Archival Services at the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture, and he founded the archives at the Charleston County Public Library. Greene is chair of Charleston’s Historical Commission. An award-winning novelist, he has also authored or coauthored several nonfiction works, including Mr. Skylark: John Bennett and the Charleston Renaissance (Georgia) and Slave Badges and the Slave-Hire System in Charleston, South Carolina, 1783–1865. He is also the coeditor of Renaissance in Charleston: Art and Life in the Carolina Low Country, 1900–1940 (Georgia).

Editorial Reviews

With clear-eyed analysis and narrative flair, Harlan Greene’s Porgy’s Ghost recovers the remarkable yet long-overlooked story of Dorothy Heyward—playwright, collaborator, and pivotal creative force behind Porgy and Bess and other foundational works of American theater. Greene illuminates Heyward’s artistic vision, her struggles for recognition within a male-dominated cultural sphere, and her enduring influence on American theatrical and literary traditions. An essential contribution to the fields of theater history, musicology, and American studies, Porgy’s Ghost not only restores Dorothy Heyward’s legacy, but also offers a nuanced exploration of the collaborative dynamics that shaped some of the nation’s most iconic cultural texts.

editor of The Cambridge Companion to Gershwin - Anna Harwell Celenza

Harlan Green re-animates and places in the spotlight the crucial figure of Dorothy Heyward in Porgy’s Ghost. Working with materials largely unknown to previous scholars, Greene demonstrates how deeply and crucially Dorothy was involved in every stage of the complex process that began with the germination of the novel as a creative writing project and ended with the triumphant production of Gershwin’s opera. This is a brilliant feat of scholarly reclamation that results not only in an indelible portrait of a gifted, idiosyncratic, and enigmatic woman but in a far more richly textured and dynamic understanding than we have had of the many energies pulsing through Gershwin’s masterwork.

author of Citizenship on Catfish Row: Race and Nation in American Popular Entertainment - Geoffrey Harpham

Porgy's Ghost is full of original insights and new information about a fascinating but elusive figure who lived in the shadow of her famous husband. Harlan Greene tells a compelling story that is, by turns, witty, tragic, and surprising.

Emeritus Professor of English, The Citadel, and author of DuBose Heyward: A Charleston Gentleman and the World of Po - James M. Hutchisson

Finally, the true story behind the iconic Porgy and Bess is revealed in this fascinating biography of Dorothy Heyward by Harlan Greene. A skillful writer and playwright both before and after her marriage to DuBose Heyward, she was key to the success of this great work. Porgy's Ghost is a treasure not only for what it reveals about this very talented woman, but also the intertwined history of American theater, women writers, and race relations in the twentieth century United States.

author of New Women of the New South

In Porgy’s Ghost, Harlan Greene sensitively treads through the minefields of race and gender in the United States to reveal the story of the Ohio-born playwright Dorothy Heyward, who often downplayed her significant contributions to the libretto of Porgy and Bess. Beleaguered by ill health, self-doubt, and the social constraints of her time, Heyward struggled to advance her own career while fighting to maintain her late husband’s name as one of the creators of the now classic American opera.

Consulting Historian and Archivist, Ira and Leonore Gershwin Trusts - Michael Owen

Porgy's Ghost is an adventure in literary sleuthing worthy of Sherlock Holmes. But in the hands of ace archivist Harlan Greene, Dorothy Heyward's underappreciated role in the creation of an American classic also provides the stuff of great biography—deep insight not only into the person, but also into her place and times. Meticulously researched and exquisitely written, this fine book should find an audience well beyond the many devotees of Porgy and Bess.

Pulitzer Prize winner and author of Mother Emanuel: Two Centuries of Race, Resistance, and Forgiveness in One Charle - Kevin Sack