Erle Stanley Gardner eBooks

Erle Stanley Gardner was an American author of detective novels, and the creator of the Perry Mason series. Born in 1889 in Massachusetts, he became a self-taught attorney after being suspended from law school after only a month. He passed the California state bar exam in 1911, though he went to work as a salesman for a time. He practiced law full time beginning in 1921, though he would quit after twelve years to work full time as an author.

Gardner’s first story was published in 1923, and he regularly wrote for pulp magazines while he worked as a lawyer. Along with providing him additional income, it allowed Gardner to develop the characters that would inform many of his novels.

The Case of the Velvet Claws, Gardner’s first novel, was published in 1933. It introduced Perry Mason, a crime-solving lawyer. The following year, he published four additional Perry Mason novels. He would publish a total of 86 novels in the series, with the final five being published after Gardner’s death in 1970. The Mason character was popularly adapted for film, radio, and television.

Aside from the Perry Mason novels, Gardner also published nearly thirty novels in his Cool and Lam series. Published under the pseudonym A.A. Fair, these books included 1941’s Spill the Jackpot, 1956’s Beware the Curves, and 1964’s Up for Grabs.

Gardner’s other novels included the nine Doug Selby books, two Terry Clane mysteries, two Gramps Wiggins mysteries, and six non-series novels. Gardner also published a number of non-fiction books, most of which were about travel.