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 long-standing 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. After 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.
"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
Kevin Sack
"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."
James M. Hutchisson
"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 Gershw
