DuBOSE HEYWARD. Typed letter signed. New York: no date. One page typed letter signed on one sheet of The Royalton, New York stationery. Visible area 8 x 6 1/2 inches; framed with the sheet music cover of "It Ain't Necessarily So" from Porgy and Bess. The letter with some visible stains, a nice presentation with plaque, not examined out of frame; Together with The George Gershwin Song Book. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1932. Illustrated by Alajalov. Cloth, stains.

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A very fine association letter as Stephen Sondheim held DuBose Heyward, author of the novel and libretto of Porgy and Bess, in very high regard. In the letter, Heyward reports to Mr. Dietz "I am awfully sorry to have to be so uncooperative. I am here with a play in rehearsal and can think of nothing else." He continues lamenting his poor eyesight and closes with "I think that you are doing a grand thing in reviving the Messenger. I wish I could help." This indicates the recipient of the letter to likely be publisher August Dietz, Jr., who with his sister Frieda Meredith Dietz, revived the Richmond, Virginia-based Southern Literary Messenger in 1939, one hundred years after it had counted Edgar Allan Poe among its original staff. As a writer with strong Southern roots, DuBose Heyward was a natural candidate to approach for a contribution to this new endeavor.

In Finishing the Hat, Mr. Sondheim wrote of DuBose Heyward: "As far as I'm concerned, the lyrics in Porgy and Bess are the work of DuBose Heyward, who also wrote the libretto ... I think Heyward's lyrics are the high-water mark in musical theater."