DuBose Heyward (1885–1940)
Author of The Country Bunny and the Little Gold Shoes
About the Author
Image credit: Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery (image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)
Works by DuBose Heyward
Angel 4 copies
Brass ankle : a play in three acts 3 copies
Mamba's Daughters 1 copy
Heywood, Du Bose 1 copy
Associated Works
Twenty Five Best Plays of the Modern American Theatre: Early Series (1949) — Contributor — 25 copies
Columbia Workshop Plays: Fourteen Radio Dramas — Contributor — 3 copies
The Best Short Stories of 1927 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story (1927) — Contributor — 3 copies
Porgy and Bess [1993 film] 3 copies
50 Best Plays of the American Theatre, Volume 1 — Contributor — 2 copies
The Reviewer, Volume IV, Numbers 1-5 (October 1923-October 1924) — Contributor — 1 copy
The Reviewer, Volume III, Numbers 1-12 (April 1922-July 1923) — Contributor — 1 copy
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Canonical name
- Heyward, DuBose
- Legal name
- Heyward, Edwin DuBose
- Birthdate
- 1885-08-31
- Date of death
- 1940-06-16
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Charleston, South Carolina, USA
- Place of death
- Tryon, North Carolina, USA
- Occupations
- novelist
dramatist
poet - Relationships
- Heyward, Dorothy (wife)
- Organizations
- American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature, 1937)
Members
Reviews
Lists
Five star books (1)
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 32
- Also by
- 20
- Members
- 2,580
- Popularity
- #9,962
- Rating
- 4.2
- Reviews
- 34
- ISBNs
- 70
- Languages
- 5
- Favorited
- 2
This story is a moving, empathetic portrayal of poor urban blacks in the American South in the 1920's, an uncommon storyline for its time. The primary characters are fully fleshed out, with hopes and dreams, strengths and flaws. It contains one of the most dramatic and realistic scenes of riding out the storm surge of a hurricane that I have ever read. The story is well-framed, and the writing is beautifully poetic.
“But Porgy best loved the late afternoons, when the street was quiet again, and the sunlight, deep with colour, shot level over the low roof of the apothecary shop to paint the cream stucco on the opposite dwelling a ruddy gold and turn the old rain-washed tiles on the roof to burnished copper. Then the slender, white-clad lady who lived in the house would throw open the deep French windows of the second story drawing room, and sitting at the piano, where Porgy could see her dimly, she would play on through the dusk until old Peter drove by with his wagon to carry him home.”
The only difficulty, at least initially, is the dialogue, which is written in dialect. I thought it was supposed to be southern, but it didn’t seem to fit, so I looked it up and it is Gullah, a creole language that evolved during the slavery years on the Sea Islands, located off the coast of the southeastern U.S. As the novel progressed, I figured out the syntax and it flowed much better.
This book is a full of sensory details, providing a vivid sense of the Gullah culture and community. It is slim, but powerful. I found it poignant and expressive, fully deserving of a place on my list of modern classics.
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