Erle Stanley Gardner
Encyclopedia
Erle Stanley Gardner was an American
lawyer
and author
of detective stories
, best known for the Perry Mason
series, he also published under the pseudonyms A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray and Robert Parr.
, Gardner graduated from Palo Alto High School
in 1909, and received his only formal legal education at Valparaiso University School of Law
in the state of Indiana
. He attended law school for approximately 1 month, was suspended from school when his interest in boxing became a distraction, then settled in California where he became a self-taught attorney and passed the state bar exam in 1911. He opened his own law office in Merced, California
, then worked for five years for a sales agency. In 1921, he returned to the practice of law, creating the firm of Sheridan, Orr, Drapeau and Gardner in Ventura, California
.
In 1912, he married Natalie Frances Talbert; they had a daughter, Grace. Gardner practiced at the Ventura firm until 1933, when The Case of the Velvet Claws was published. Much of that novel was set at the historic Pierpont Inn
, which was just down the road from his law office.
Gardner gave up the practice of law to devote full time to writing. In 1937 he moved to Temecula, California
, where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1968 he married his long-time secretary Agnes Jean Bethell (1902–2002), the "real Della Street".
. His ashes were scattered over the Baja peninsular.
Gardner's ranch was known as Rancho del Paisano at the time. It was variously described as being 700 acres (2.8 km²), 1000 acres (4 km²), or 3000 acres (12.1 km²) and was sold after his death to a Newport Beach couple. In 2001, the ranch was resold to the Pechanga Band of Indians, renamed into Great Oak Ranch and eventually joined to the Pechanga reservation.
In 2003, Temecula Valley Unified School District named a newly opened middle school after Gardner.
Innovative and restless in his nature, Gardner was bored by the routine of legal practice, the only part of which he enjoyed was trial work and the development of trial strategy. In his spare time, he began to write for pulp magazines, which also fostered the early careers of Dashiell Hammett
and Raymond Chandler
. His first story was published in 1923. He created many different series characters for the pulps, including the ingenious Lester Leith, a "gentleman thief" in the tradition of Raffles
, and Ken Corning, a crusading lawyer who was the archetype of his most successful creation, the fictional lawyer and crime-solver Perry Mason
, about whom he wrote more than eighty novels. With the success of Perry Mason, he gradually reduced his contributions to the pulp magazines, eventually withdrawing from the medium entirely, except for non-fiction articles on travel, Western history, and forensic science.
Gardner also devoted thousands of hours to a project called "The Court of Last Resort", which he undertook with his many friends in the forensic, legal and investigative communities. The project sought to review and, if appropriate, to reverse, miscarriages of justice against possibly innocent criminal defendants who were convicted owing to poor original legal representation or to the inadequate, careless or malicious actions of police and prosecutors and most especially, with regard to the abuse or misinterpretation of medical and other forensic evidence. The resulting 1952 book earned Gardner his only Edgar Award
, in the Best Fact Crime category.
The character of Perry Mason was portrayed in various Hollywood films of the 1930s and 40s, and a long-running radio program from 1943 to 1955. "When Erle Stanley Gardner was reluctant to allow CBS to transform Mason into a TV soap opera, (CBS) created The Edge of Night
. For that latter enterprise, John Larkin, radio's best identified Mason, was cast as the protagonist-star, initially as a detective, eventually as an attorney, in a thinly veiled copy of Mason."
Gardner also created characters for the radio programs Christopher London (1950), starring Glenn Ford
, and A Life in Your Hands (1949–1952). "As on other Gardner-inspired narratives, someone else actually penned the scripts."
Eventually Perry Mason
became a long-running TV series with Raymond Burr
as the title character. Gardner himself made an uncredited appearance as a judge in the final episode of the original series titled "The Case of the Final Fade-Out." In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mason was revived for a series of made-for-TV movies featuring surviving members of the original cast, including Burr.
Under the pen name A. A. Fair, he also wrote a series of novels about the private detective firm of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam
. He also wrote another noteworthy series of novels about District Attorney Doug Selby
and his opponent, the rascally Alphonse Baker Carr. This series is an inversion of the motif of the Perry Mason novels, with prosecutor Selby being portrayed as the courageous and imaginative crime solver and his perennial antagonist A.B. Carr being a wily shyster whose clients are always "as guilty as hell".
The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
currently archives Gardner's manuscripts. The library has constructed a miniaturized reproduction of his study room.
Gardner held a lifelong fascination with Baja California and his written works became an authority on the early exploration of the Mexican peninsula. He used various modes of transportation to traverse Baja, including boat, oversized trucks, airplane and even helicopter.
In a real murder trial case in Arizona, the district attorney used The Case of the Curious Bride as the basis for his line of questioning. According to the Gardner Mystery Library (Walter J. Black, Inc.): "The Arizona murder trial was going badly for the district attorney. He knew the accused was guilty; but because of a quirk in the law, he had no hope for a conviction. Then, one day, the district attorney called the suspect's wife to the stand and started an unexpected line of questioning. When the judge demanded an explanation, the district attorney produced The Case of the Curious Bride by Erle Stanley Gardner. In it, he said, Perry Mason used the same questioning. The Judge withdrew to his chambers, and when he returned, he allowed the district attorney to proceed with his ingenious approach. It changed the course of the trial and led to a verdict of 'Guilty.' "
Posthumous Collections
True Crime
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
of detective stories
Crime fiction
Crime fiction is the literary genre that fictionalizes crimes, their detection, criminals and their motives. It is usually distinguished from mainstream fiction and other genres such as science fiction or historical fiction, but boundaries can be, and indeed are, blurred...
, best known for the Perry Mason
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a plot involving his client's murder trial...
series, he also published under the pseudonyms A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray and Robert Parr.
Life
Born in Malden, MassachusettsMalden, Massachusetts
Malden is a suburban city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 59,450 at the 2010 census. In 2009 Malden was ranked as the "Best Place to Raise Your Kids" in Massachusetts by Bloomberg Businessweek Magazine.-History:...
, Gardner graduated from Palo Alto High School
Palo Alto High School
Palo Alto Senior High School, known locally as "Paly," was founded in 1898 and is one of the oldest high schools in the region. Located in Palo Alto, California, United States, Paly is nestled in the heart of Silicon Valley, and is adjacent to Stanford University. Paly is known for its academically...
in 1909, and received his only formal legal education at Valparaiso University School of Law
Valparaiso University School of Law
The Valparaiso University School of Law is located on the campus of Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Indiana, a community located less than an hour from Chicago...
in the state of Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
. He attended law school for approximately 1 month, was suspended from school when his interest in boxing became a distraction, then settled in California where he became a self-taught attorney and passed the state bar exam in 1911. He opened his own law office in Merced, California
Merced, California
Merced is a city in, and the county seat of, Merced County, California in the San Joaquin Valley of Northern California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 78,958. Incorporated in 1889, Merced is a charter city that operates under a council-manager government...
, then worked for five years for a sales agency. In 1921, he returned to the practice of law, creating the firm of Sheridan, Orr, Drapeau and Gardner in Ventura, California
Ventura, California
Ventura is the county seat of Ventura County, California, United States, incorporated in 1866. The population was 106,433 at the 2010 census, up from 100,916 at the 2000 census. Ventura is accessible via U.S...
.
In 1912, he married Natalie Frances Talbert; they had a daughter, Grace. Gardner practiced at the Ventura firm until 1933, when The Case of the Velvet Claws was published. Much of that novel was set at the historic Pierpont Inn
Pierpont inn
The ' was also known as "The Lovely Lady By The Sea".-History:In 1908 Josephine Pierpont bought land on a bluff overlooking the ocean in Ventura, California for development as a site for an inn...
, which was just down the road from his law office.
Gardner gave up the practice of law to devote full time to writing. In 1937 he moved to Temecula, California
Temecula, California
Temecula is a city in southwestern Riverside County, California, United States with a population of 100,097 according to the 2010 United States Census, making it the lowest populated American city over 100,000 population. It was incorporated on December 1, 1989...
, where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1968 he married his long-time secretary Agnes Jean Bethell (1902–2002), the "real Della Street".
Death
He died on March 11, 1970 in Temecula, CaliforniaTemecula, California
Temecula is a city in southwestern Riverside County, California, United States with a population of 100,097 according to the 2010 United States Census, making it the lowest populated American city over 100,000 population. It was incorporated on December 1, 1989...
. His ashes were scattered over the Baja peninsular.
Gardner's ranch was known as Rancho del Paisano at the time. It was variously described as being 700 acres (2.8 km²), 1000 acres (4 km²), or 3000 acres (12.1 km²) and was sold after his death to a Newport Beach couple. In 2001, the ranch was resold to the Pechanga Band of Indians, renamed into Great Oak Ranch and eventually joined to the Pechanga reservation.
In 2003, Temecula Valley Unified School District named a newly opened middle school after Gardner.
Work
Dashiell Hammett
Samuel Dashiell Hammett was an American author of hard-boiled detective novels and short stories, and political activist. Among the enduring characters he created are Sam Spade , Nick and Nora Charles , and the Continental Op .In addition to the significant influence his novels and stories had on...
and Raymond Chandler
Raymond Chandler
Raymond Thornton Chandler was an American novelist and screenwriter.In 1932, at age forty-five, Raymond Chandler decided to become a detective fiction writer after losing his job as an oil company executive during the Depression. His first short story, "Blackmailers Don't Shoot", was published in...
. His first story was published in 1923. He created many different series characters for the pulps, including the ingenious Lester Leith, a "gentleman thief" in the tradition of Raffles
A. J. Raffles
Arthur J. Raffles is a character created in the 1890s by E. W. Hornung, a brother-in-law to Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Raffles is, in many ways, a deliberate inversion of Holmes — he is a "gentleman thief," living in the Albany, a prestigious address in London, playing...
, and Ken Corning, a crusading lawyer who was the archetype of his most successful creation, the fictional lawyer and crime-solver Perry Mason
Perry Mason
Perry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a plot involving his client's murder trial...
, about whom he wrote more than eighty novels. With the success of Perry Mason, he gradually reduced his contributions to the pulp magazines, eventually withdrawing from the medium entirely, except for non-fiction articles on travel, Western history, and forensic science.
Gardner also devoted thousands of hours to a project called "The Court of Last Resort", which he undertook with his many friends in the forensic, legal and investigative communities. The project sought to review and, if appropriate, to reverse, miscarriages of justice against possibly innocent criminal defendants who were convicted owing to poor original legal representation or to the inadequate, careless or malicious actions of police and prosecutors and most especially, with regard to the abuse or misinterpretation of medical and other forensic evidence. The resulting 1952 book earned Gardner his only Edgar Award
Edgar Award
The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
, in the Best Fact Crime category.
The character of Perry Mason was portrayed in various Hollywood films of the 1930s and 40s, and a long-running radio program from 1943 to 1955. "When Erle Stanley Gardner was reluctant to allow CBS to transform Mason into a TV soap opera, (CBS) created The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night
The Edge of Night is an American television mystery series/soap opera produced by Procter & Gamble. It debuted on CBS on April 2, 1956, and ran as a live broadcast on that network until November 28, 1975; the series then moved to ABC, where it aired from December 1, 1975, until December 28, 1984...
. For that latter enterprise, John Larkin, radio's best identified Mason, was cast as the protagonist-star, initially as a detective, eventually as an attorney, in a thinly veiled copy of Mason."
Gardner also created characters for the radio programs Christopher London (1950), starring Glenn Ford
Glenn Ford
Glenn Ford was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades...
, and A Life in Your Hands (1949–1952). "As on other Gardner-inspired narratives, someone else actually penned the scripts."
Eventually Perry Mason
Perry Mason (TV series)
Perry Mason is an American legal drama produced by Paisano Productions that ran from September 1957 to May 1966 on CBS. The title character, portrayed by Raymond Burr, is a fictional Los Angeles defense attorney who originally appeared in detective fiction by Erle Stanley Gardner...
became a long-running TV series with Raymond Burr
Raymond Burr
Raymond William Stacey Burr was a Canadian actor, primarily known for his title roles in the television dramas Perry Mason and Ironside. His early acting career included roles on Broadway, radio, television and in film, usually as the villain...
as the title character. Gardner himself made an uncredited appearance as a judge in the final episode of the original series titled "The Case of the Final Fade-Out." In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mason was revived for a series of made-for-TV movies featuring surviving members of the original cast, including Burr.
Under the pen name A. A. Fair, he also wrote a series of novels about the private detective firm of Bertha Cool and Donald Lam
Cool and Lam
Cool and Lam is the fictional American private detective firm that is the center of a series of detective novels written by Erle Stanley Gardner using the pen name of A. A...
. He also wrote another noteworthy series of novels about District Attorney Doug Selby
Doug Selby
Doug Selby is a fictional creation of Erle Stanley Gardner. He appears in nine books, all originally serialized in magazines. He was portrayed by Jim Hutton in a 1971 television movie, "They Call it Murder," loosely based on The D.A...
and his opponent, the rascally Alphonse Baker Carr. This series is an inversion of the motif of the Perry Mason novels, with prosecutor Selby being portrayed as the courageous and imaginative crime solver and his perennial antagonist A.B. Carr being a wily shyster whose clients are always "as guilty as hell".
The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center
The Harry Ransom Center is a library and archive at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the United States and Europe. The Ransom Center houses 36 million literary manuscripts, 1 million rare books, 5 million photographs, and more...
currently archives Gardner's manuscripts. The library has constructed a miniaturized reproduction of his study room.
Gardner held a lifelong fascination with Baja California and his written works became an authority on the early exploration of the Mexican peninsula. He used various modes of transportation to traverse Baja, including boat, oversized trucks, airplane and even helicopter.
In a real murder trial case in Arizona, the district attorney used The Case of the Curious Bride as the basis for his line of questioning. According to the Gardner Mystery Library (Walter J. Black, Inc.): "The Arizona murder trial was going badly for the district attorney. He knew the accused was guilty; but because of a quirk in the law, he had no hope for a conviction. Then, one day, the district attorney called the suspect's wife to the stand and started an unexpected line of questioning. When the judge demanded an explanation, the district attorney produced The Case of the Curious Bride by Erle Stanley Gardner. In it, he said, Perry Mason used the same questioning. The Judge withdrew to his chambers, and when he returned, he allowed the district attorney to proceed with his ingenious approach. It changed the course of the trial and led to a verdict of 'Guilty.' "
Major mystery series
- Perry Mason (novels)Perry Mason (novels)The following is a list of the 82 Perry Mason novels by Erle Stanley Gardner.Many Perry Mason novels were first published in serial format in The Saturday Evening Post, some with different titles. Sixteen appeared in the Toronto Star Weekly in condensed form. All books were first published by...
(see also Perry MasonPerry MasonPerry Mason is a fictional character, a defense attorney who was the main character in works of detective fiction authored by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason was featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which had a plot involving his client's murder trial...
) - Cool and LamCool and LamCool and Lam is the fictional American private detective firm that is the center of a series of detective novels written by Erle Stanley Gardner using the pen name of A. A...
- Doug SelbyDoug SelbyDoug Selby is a fictional creation of Erle Stanley Gardner. He appears in nine books, all originally serialized in magazines. He was portrayed by Jim Hutton in a 1971 television movie, "They Call it Murder," loosely based on The D.A...
Terry Clane mysteries
- Murder up my Sleeve (1937)
- The Case of the Backward Mule (1946)
Gramps Wiggins mysteries
- The Case of the Turning Tide (1941)
- The Case of the Smoking Chimney (1943)
Other fiction
- This is Murder (1935)
- The Clue of the Forgotton Murder (1935) (criminologist Sidney Griff)
- Over the Hump (1945; a different version of this novella is also included in The Case of the Murderer's Bride under the title "Death Rides a Boxcar")
- Two Clues (1947) (two novelets about Sheriff Bill Eldon, The Clue of the Runaway Blonde and The Clue of the Hungry Horse)
- The Case of the Musical Cow (1950)
- The Case of the Murderer's Bride (1969; includes various short stories and novelettes)
Posthumous Collections
- The Amazing Adventures of Lester Leith (1980; includes five Lester Leith stories)
- Whispering Sands - Stories of Gold Fever and the Western Desert (1981; nine stories—seven feature Bob Zane)
- The Human Zero (1981; seven science fiction stories)
- Pay Dirt and Other Whispering Sands Stories of Gold Fever and the Western Desert (1983; nine Bob Zane stories)
- The Adventures of Paul Pry (nine Paul Pry stories)
- Dead Men's Letters (1990; a compilation of six Ed Jenkins novelettes)
- The Blonde in Lower Six (1990; a compilation of four Ed Jenkins stories)
- Honest Money (1991; the six Ken Corning stories)
- The Danger Zone and Other Stories (2004; ten miscellaneous stories)
- The Casebook of Sidney Zoom (2006; ten Sidney Zoom stories)
- All Detective Magazine(2009; seven stories originally published in All Detective Magazine in 1933)
- The Exploits of the Patent Leather Kid (2010)
Non-fiction
Travel- The Land of Shorter Shadows (1948)
- Neighborhood Frontiers (1954)
- Hunting the Desert Whale (1960)
- Hovering Over Baja (1961)
- The Hidden Heart of Baja (1962)
- The Desert is Yours (1963)
- The World of Water (1965)
- Hunting Lost Mines by Helicopter (1965)
- Off the Beaten Track in Baja (1967)
- Gypsy Days on the Delta (1967)
- Mexico's Magic Square (1968)
- Drifting Down the Delta (1969)
- Host With the Big Hat (1969)
True Crime
- The Court of Last Resort (1952) (revised and enlarged paperback edition in 1954)
- Cops on Campus and Crime in the Streets (1970)
Books about Erle Stanley Gardner
- Mundell, E. H. Erle Stanley Gardner: A Checklist. Kent State University Press, 1968. ISBN 87338-034-7.
- Senate, Richard L. Erle Stanley Gardner's Ventura: Birthplace of Perry Mason. Ventura, California: Citation Press. ISBN 0-9640065-5-3.
- Fugate, Francis L. & Roberta B. Secrets of the World's Best-Selling Writer: The Story Telling Techniques of Erle Stanley Gardner. New York, William Morrow & Co. 1980. ISBN 0-688-03701-1.
- Hughes, Dorothy B.Dorothy B. HughesDorothy B. Hughes was an American crime writer and literary critic. Hughes wrote fourteen crime and detective novels, primarily in the hardboiled and noir styles, and is best known for the novels In a Lonely Place and Ride the Pink Horse .Born Dorothy Belle Flanagan in Kansas City, Missouri, she...
. Erle Stanley Gardner: The Case of the Real Perry Mason. New York, William Morrow & Co. 1978. ISBN 0-688-03282-6. - Johnston, AlvaAlva JohnstonAlva Johnston was a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and biographer.He started out at the Sacramento Bee in 1906. From 1912-1928, he wrote for The New York Times and from 1928-1932 for the New York Herald Tribune. From 1932 until his retirement, he wrote articles for The Saturday Evening...
. The Case of Erle Stanley Gardner. New York, William Morrow & Co., 1947.
External links
- Erle Stanley Gardner
- Erle Stanley Gardner fan site
- Erle Stanley Gardner pages with extensive bibliographic and other information, including pulp publications
- Erle Stanley Gardner searching for lost mines in Popular SciencePopular SciencePopular Science is an American monthly magazine founded in 1872 carrying articles for the general reader on science and technology subjects. Popular Science has won over 58 awards, including the ASME awards for its journalistic excellence in both 2003 and 2004...
magazine - Episodes of A Life in Your Hands, a radio program created by Gardner, in the public domain
- Episodes of Christopher London, a radio program created by Gardner, in the public domain