Porgy's a novel written by DuBose Heyward in 1925, as well as a play Dorothy Heyward helped him to write which debuted in 1927. Even before the play had been fully written, Heyward was in discussions with George Gershwin for an operatic version of his novel, which debuted in 1935 as Porgy and Bess (renamed to distinguish it from the play). Novel The novel tells the story of Porgy, a crippled street-beggar in the black tenements of Charleston, South Carolina in the 1920s. The character was base… (More on Porgy)