Heyward, DuBose

Heyward, DuBose (dəbōz` hā`wərd), 1885–1940, American author, b. Charleston, S.C. His first published work was a volume of poetry, Carolina Chansons (1922), written with Hervey Allen. Heyward's story of the lives of blacks on the Charleston waterfront, Porgy (1925), was dramatized by Heyward and his wife Dorothy in 1927. In 1935 it was made into a folk opera, Porgy and Bess, with the score by George Gershwin. Heyward's later works include Mamba's Daughters, a story of black life, which the Heywards also successfully dramatized (1939).

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Heyward, (Edwin) DuBose (1885–1940) writer; born in Charleston, S.C. He was educated and lived in Charleston. He worked in a hardware store and as a checker in a cotton warehouse, a crucial experience. Although not African-American, he drew on the life of South Carolina blacks for much of his writing. He and his wife dramatized his first novel, Porgy (1925), and it was the basis for George Gershwin's opera, Porgy and Bess (1935). He also wrote poetry and other fictional works.