The Bat was published by George H. Doran Company in 1926, a novelization of the enormously successful play that Rinehart co-wrote with Avery Hopwood, which opened on Broadway in 1920 and ran for 867 performances — making it one of the longest-running plays of the decade. The novel retains the play’s Gothic energy: a country house, a hidden room, a master criminal, and a cast of suspects trapped together in darkness.
Cornelia Van Gorder, a wealthy elderly spinster, has rented a country house for the summer — the property of a recently deceased banker whose bank has failed. The house is rumored to contain hidden money, and “the Bat” — a legendary criminal who has terrorized the city — is believed to be seeking it. One by one, the household’s members are eliminated or revealed as suspects, and Cornelia (aided by her faithful maid Lizzie and hindered by a detective whose competence is questionable) must identify the Bat before becoming his next victim.
The novel’s influence on popular culture is difficult to overstate: the figure of the Bat (a criminal who operates at night, uses darkness and fear as weapons, and leaves a bat-shaped calling card) directly influenced Bob Kane’s creation of Batman in 1939. The old-dark-house genre — with its secret passages, flickering lights, screaming heroines, and masked villains — was codified by The Bat and its stage predecessor.
Collecting The Bat
First edition (George H. Doran Company, New York, 1926): Cloth binding, dust jacket.
Market values:
- First edition in dust jacket: $80–$250
- First edition without jacket: $15–$40
- Play script first edition (1920): $30–$80