DuBose Heyward: A Charleston Gentleman and the World of Porgy and Bess

In 1924 DuBose Heyward (1885-1940) was a businessman absorbed in his Charleston heritage. One year later he was the world-famous author of Porgy, the first major southern novel to portray blacks without condescension. Just a decade later George Gershwin had transformed Heyward's book into an opera that would become one of the most enduring masterworks of American music.

As a young man Heyward was immersed in the Gullah culture of his city. Especially through his mother, a performer and inter...