DuBose Heyward

Dubose Heyward, author of the novel (1925) and play (1927) Porgy, wrote fiction and short stories during the 1920s and 1930s that focused on the lives of black Americans living on the waterfront of Charleston, SC. Heyward and his wife, Dorothy, dramatized his most successful novels, resulting in major Broadway successes, namely Porgy & Bess, the first U.S. folk opera, with music by George Gershwin and lyrics co-written by Ira Gershwin and Heyward. Many of the songs from the classic Porgy & Bess have been performed and recorded countless times over the decades, including "Summertime," "I Love You Porgy," and "I'm On My Way," to name just a few. Heyward and his wife later dramatized another of his books, Mamba's Daughters, with much success. Heyward then wrote the screenplay for the 1933 motion picture based on Eugene O'Neill's Emperor Jones, starring Paul Robeson. The Charleston, SC, native also founded the Poetry Society of South Carolina.