Pseudapod, episode 974 for May 2nd, 2025, The Half Pint Flask by Dubose Hayward.

I'm Alex, co-editor is Sudapod, your host this week.

Morning Up Front, this week and next will benefit from a critical and thoughtful approach.

Consider the differences between authorial voice and character voice.

There's one hard R in here and some other words that have aged poorly.

Also place this work in its context of a 1927 publication date.

This was written during the same time period when the birth of a nation was the first film screened in the White House.

Coincidentally, I hear the White House has an anniversary screening scheduled for later this year.

The Half Pint Flask was first published in the Bookman, May 1927.

Edwin Dubose Hayward, as a child and young man, was frequently ill.

He contracted polio when he was 18.

Two years later, he contracted typhoid fever, and the following year fell ill with pleuracy.

Also, coincidentally, polio and its companions are scheduled for an anniversary in the White House later this year.

DeBose dropped out of high school at his first year at age 14, but had a lifelong and serious interest in literature.

He was able to support himself as he became a successful insurance agent. While confined to his sickbed, he wrote numerous verses and stories.

By 1924, Hayward had achieved a measure of financial independence, allowing him to give up business,

and devote himself full-time to literature.

In 1925, he published his novel, Porgy, set in the Black community of Charleston.

This was popularized by the Gershwin musical folk opera, Porgy and Bess.

This musical was a vehicle for protest, and ultimately had the first desegregated audience at the National Theater.

One of the memorable points from the campaign last year was VP Harris shopping for records and coming out to show off a soundtrack to Porgy and Bess.

You can watch the whole 1959 theatrical adaptation on YouTube.

...