Mary Roberts Rinehart

Mary Roberts Rinehart , 1876-1958, American novelist, b. Pittsburgh. A graduate nurse, she married Dr. Stanley M. Rinehart in 1896. The first of her many mystery stories, The Circular Staircase (1908), established her as a leading writer of the genre; Rinehart and Avery Hopwood successfully dramatized the novel as The Bat (1920). Her other mystery novels include The Man in Lower Ten (1909), The Case of Jennie Brice (1914), The Red Lamp (1925), The Door (1930), The Yellow Room (1945), and The Swimming Pool (1952). Stories about "Tish," a self-reliant spinster, first appeared in the Saturday Evening Post and were collected into The Best of Tish (1955).

Bibliography: See Rinehart's autobiography (1931, rev. ed. 1948).

Rinehart, Mary Roberts (1876–1958), born in Pittsburgh, established herself as a leading author of mystery stories with her first books, The Circular Staircase (1908) and The Man in Lower Ten (1909). The former was dramatized with Avery Hopwood as The Bat (1920). She continued to write popular stories of horror and crime detection, as well as several plays and a series of humorous novels whose heroine is the eccentric old maid “Tish.” My Story (1931, revised 1948) is her autobiography.

Rinehart, Mary Roberts (1876–1958), playwright. The Pittsburgh‐born author best known for her mystery novels was also a successful dramatist. Her first play, written under the pen name Rinehart Roberts, was The Double Life (1906), but she had her first hit when she collaborated with Avery Hopwood on the comedy Seven Days (1909). After writing Cheer Up (1912) she rejoined with Hopwood in 1920 to write two huge successes, Spanish Love and The Bat. Rinehart's last play, an adaptation of another of her books, was the mystery The Breaking Point (1923). Autobiography: My Story, 1931.