a descendant of thomas heyward, jr., dubose heyward was from an old, white family in charleston, south carolina. in 1925, he published his first and best-regarded novel, "porgy", which was inspired by a news story and drawn from his sympathetic observations of african american culture. the book was a best seller. "porgy" was one of a number of works portraying black life written by white authors, but it was infused with human understanding at a time that such an approach was new.