He Heard America Sing: The Story of Stephen Foster

TitleHe Heard America Sing: The Story of Stephen Foster
Year of Publication1940
Publication TypeNovel
Number of Pages or Episodes236 p.
LanguageEnglish
AuthorsPurdy, Claire Lee
Tertiary AuthorsGramatky, Dorothea Cooke
PublisherJulian Messner
CityNew York
Keywords"Old Dog Tray"; Allegheny Portage Railroad; Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919); Black Americans; Christy Minstrels; composers; Eliza T. Foster (1788-1855); flatboats; Knights of the S.T.; Lieve (Olivia Pise); minstrels; Native Americans; Pennsylvania Railroad; slavery; steamboats; Stephen Foster (1826-64); William Foster (1779-1855)
Abstract

A novelized biography of Stephen Foster (1826-1864), the great American ballad writer from Pittsburgh. The book includes songs like “Oh, Susannah” and “Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair.”

Notes

North Side is referred to as Allegheny City, as it was then known.

Author Biography

Claire Lee Purdy (1906-56) was born in Chihuahua, Mexico and earned her BA in 1929 at the University of Colorado, Boulder. A teacher, she wrote for children eight biographical novels about musicians like Foster, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, and Gilbert and Sullivan. She died in Los Angeles. Dorothea Cooke Gramatky (1908-2001), born in Los Angeles, studied at Chouinard Art Institute. She was an illustrator and watercolor painter.

Time

1820s-60s