Herskovits. In 1934, Hurston seriously considered
relocating to Evanston, where she could further in-
tensify her work with the man regarded as the ex-
pert in Haitian culture. Like Boas, Herskovits was
an important public supporter of Hurston’s work.
Her second published work, MULES ANDMEN,in-
cluded a highly complementary recommendation
from Herskovits. In January 1935, the new ROSEN-
WALDFELLOWSHIPwinner wrote to her scholarly
mentor with a bold idea. “With what you have and
what I have and what both of us can get in the next
two years,” she wrote, “we can furnish the texts
that are so needed in America. You of course, being
better trained, at the top and me second to you.
You said that we could workup something if you
could get the money and now I have it” [Kaplan,
335]. In 1936, Herskovits was one of several emi-
nent scholars whom Hurston used as references in
her successful Guggenheim Fellowship application.
Yet, he also discouraged her from traveling to Ja-
maica to do research. When she arrived on the
Caribbean island in the fall of that year and discov-
ered Dunham, another Herskovits student whom
she thought was much less prepared than she to do
research, Hurston wondered about the motives of
the eminent senior scholar. By 1937, she was writ-
ing Herskovits to update him on her research and
to comment on the complicated politics of the
granting agencies that sponsored her work and
prompted her to wonder about Herskovits’s invest-
ments in her work.
Herskovits published much before, during, and
after the Harlem Renaissance period. His scholar-
ship was based on research conducted throughout
AFRICAand the Caribbean. Some of his most influ-
ential publications during the era include The
American Negro: A Study in Racial Crossing(1928)
and Dahomey(1938). His research on Suriname led
to two coauthored books with Frances Herskovits,
Rebel Destiny(1934) and Suriname Folk Lore(1936).
Bibliography
Herskovits, Melville. “The Dilemma of Social Pattern.”
Survey Graphic(March 1925): 676–678.
Kaplan, Carla. Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters.New
York: Doubleday, 2002.
Lewis, David Levering. W. E. B. DuBois: The Fight for
Equality and the American Century, 1919–1963.New
York: Henry Holt and Company, 1993.
Simpson, George Eaton. Melville J. Herskovits.New York;
Columbia University Press, 1973.Heyward, Dorothy Hartzell Kuhns
(1890–1961)
An accomplished playwright from Wooster, Ohio,
who is perhaps best known as the dramatist who
first scripted the novel PORGY(1927), by her hus-
band, DUBOSEHEYWARD. Her writing later served
as the libretto in the George and Ira GERSHWINpro-
duction of the work PORGY ANDBESS,one of the
most popular and long-standing American operas.
Dorothy Heywood’s most acclaimed dramatizations
were based on two novels written by her husband
DuBose Heyward. Scholars recognize the Heywards
as important figures in Harlem Renaissance–era
theater and culture. In particular, their decisions to
cast African-American actors, rather than whites in
blackface, provided talented African-American per-
formers with long-overdue access to the prestigious
world of Broadway.
Dorothy Hartzell Kuhn’s family moved often
during her childhood. She eventually moved to
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and immersed herself
in theater workshops with George Pierce Baker at
HARVARDUNIVERSITY. She married DuBose Hey-
ward, whom she had met at the MacDowell
Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire, in
September 1923. They enjoyed 17 years of mar-
riage before his untimely death due to a heart at-
tack in 1940. Dorothy Heyward passed away in
New York City in November 1961. The couple’s
only child, Jennifer, who became a ballerina, was
born in 1930 and passed away in 1984.
Dorothy Heyward’s impressive career as a
playwright spanned more than 30 years, from 1924
through 1957. In March 1924 she debuted Nancy
Ann,her first play, at the Forty-ninth Street The-
atre in New York City after two residencies at
MacDowell, the prestigious New Hampshire writ-
ers colony. Subsequent plays included The Lighted
House (1925), Love in a Cupboard(1925), Porgy
(1927), Jonica(1930), and Cinderelative(1930). In
1927 Porgyopened at the Guild Theatre in New
York with PAULROBESONin the title role. The
play enjoyed a staggering 217 performances before
the start of its national tour and its triumphant re-
turn to New York City.Heyward, Dorothy Hartzell Kuhns 235