Bats Out of Hell was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1993. Written during Hannah’s early recovery from alcoholism, the stories were paradoxically wilder than anything he had written while drinking. Civil War re-enactors, deranged musicians, aging pilots, and various damaged Southern men populated the collection, confronting mortality, failure, and the persistence of desire with Hannah’s characteristic blend of violence and unexpected tenderness.
The sobriety seemed to have intensified rather than diminished Hannah’s prose — the control was sharper, the compression tighter, and the moments of grace more surprising.
Collecting Bats Out of Hell
First edition (Houghton Mifflin, Boston, 1993): Boards with dust jacket.
Market values:
- Fine in dust jacket: $25–$60
- Very good: $10–$25
Projected values (2026–2036): Modest appreciation.
Stories from the Wilderness
Published in 1993, Bats Out of Hell collects stories written during one of Hannah’s most difficult periods. The title story and several others deal with alcoholism, violence, and the wreckage of relationships with a rawness that suggests autobiography barely transformed into fiction. The collection is uneven but contains passages of extraordinary power.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where should I start with Barry Hannah? Airships is the essential starting point — it contains his best-known stories and demonstrates his style at its most controlled and powerful. From there, Ray for the compressed novel form and Geronimo Rex for the full-length debut. The posthumous Long, Last, Happy collects his selected stories with an introduction by Rick Bass.