author
Avery Hopwood
1882–1928
A hit-making Broadway playwright of the Jazz Age, he was famous enough to have four plays running in New York at the same time in 1920. His comedies and mysteries helped shape popular American theater, and his legacy lived on through the Hopwood Awards for young writers.
1 Audiobook
The Bat
by Stephen Vincent Benét, Avery Hopwood, Mary Roberts Rinehart
About the author
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1882, Avery Hopwood became one of the most commercially successful American playwrights of the early 20th century. He graduated from the University of Michigan in 1905, worked briefly in journalism, and then built a theater career writing and co-writing comedies, farces, and mysteries that clicked with Broadway audiences.
He is especially remembered for the remarkable run of success that gave him four plays on Broadway at once in 1920, including The Gold Diggers, The Bat, Spanish Love, and Ladies' Night. His work captured the brisk, playful spirit of the Jazz Age, and several of his stage hits later found new life on screen.
Hopwood died in 1928 in the south of France. After his death, his estate helped establish the Avery Hopwood and Jule Hopwood Awards at the University of Michigan, a writing program that has encouraged generations of emerging authors.