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Erle Stanley Gardner Books In Order

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Publication Order of Perry Mason Books

The Case of the Velvet Claws (1933)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Sulky Girl (1933)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Lucky Legs (1934)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Howling Dog (1934)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Curious Bride (1934)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Counterfeit Eye (1935)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Caretaker's Cat (1935)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece (1936)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Stuttering Bishop (1936)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Dangerous Dowager (1937)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Lame Canary (1937)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Substitute Face (1938)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Shoplifter's Shoe (1938)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Perjured Parrot (1939)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Rolling Bones (1939)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Baited Hook (1940)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Silent Partner (1940)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Haunted Husband (1941)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Empty Tin (1941)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Drowning Duck (1942)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Careless Kitten (1942)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Buried Clock (1943)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito (1943)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Crooked Candle (1944)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Black-Eyed Blonde (1944)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Golddigger's Purse (1945)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Half-Wakened Wife (1945)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Borrowed Brunette (1946)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Fan-Dancer's Horse (1946)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Lazy Lover (1947)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Lonely Heiress (1948)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Vagabond Virgin (1948)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Cautious Coquette (1949)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Dubious Bridegroom (1949)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Negligent Nymph (1950)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the One-Eyed Witness (1950)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Fiery Fingers (1951)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Angry Mourner (1951)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Moth-Eaten Mink (1952)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Grinning Gorilla (1952)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Hesitant Hostess (1953)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Green-Eyed Sister (1953)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Fugitive Nurse (1954)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Runaway Corpse (1954)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Restless Redhead (1954)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Sun Bather's Diary (1955)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Glamorous Ghost (1955)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Nervous Accomplice (1955)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Terrified Typist (1955)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Gilded Lily (1956)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Demure Defendant (1956)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of The Screaming Woman (1957)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Lucky Loser (1957)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Daring Decoy (1957)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Foot-Loose Doll (1958)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Long-Legged Models (1958)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Calendar Girl (1958)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Singing Skirt (1959)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Mythical Monkeys (1959)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Deadly Toy (1959)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Waylaid Wolf (1960)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Duplicate Daughter (1960)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Shapely Shadow (1960)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Spurious Spinster (1961)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Bigamous Spouse (1961)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Reluctant Model (1962)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Blonde Bonanza (1962)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Ice-Cold Hands (1962)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Mischievous Doll (1962)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Stepdaughter's Secret (1963)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Amorous Aunt (1963)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Daring Divorcee (1964)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Phantom Fortune (1964)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Horrified Heirs (1964)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Troubled Trustee (1965)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Beautiful Beggar (1965)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Worried Waitress (1966)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Queenly Contestant (1967)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Careless Cupid (1968)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Fabulous Fake (1969)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Fenced-in Woman (1972)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Postponed Murder (1973)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of Too Many Murders (By: Thomas Chastain) (1989)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Burning Bequest (By: Thomas Chastain) (1990)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle

Publication Order of Perry Mason Collections

The Case of the Murderer's Bride and Other Stories (1955)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Crimson Kiss (1970)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case Of The Crying Swallow (1971)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Irate Witness and Other Stories (1973)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Four Cases of Murder (1989)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle

Publication Order of Doug Selby Books

by Mignon G. Eberhart
The D.A. Calls It Murder (1937)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The D.A. Holds a Candle (1938)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The D.A. Draws a Circle (1939)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The D.A. Goes to Trial (1940)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The D. A. Cooks a Goose (1942)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The D.A. Calls a Turn (1944)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The D.A. Breaks a Seal (1946)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The D.A. Takes a Chance (1948)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The D.A. Breaks An Egg (1949)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle

Publication Order of Terry Clane Books

Murder Up My Sleeve (1937)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Backward Mule (1946)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle

Publication Order of Donald Lam & Bertha Cool Books

as A.A. Fair
The Bigger They Come (1939)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Knife Slipped (1939)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Turn on the Heat (1940)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Gold Comes in Bricks (1940)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Spill the Jackpot (1941)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Double or Quits (1941)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Owls Don't Blink (1942)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Bats Fly at Dusk (1942)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Cats Prowl at Night (1943)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Give 'em the Ax (1944)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Crows Can't Count (1946)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Fools Die on Friday (1947)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Bedrooms Have Windows (1949)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Top of the Heap (1952)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Some Women Won't Wait (1953)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Beware the Curves (1956)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
You Can Die Laughing (1957)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Some Slips Don't Show (1957)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Count of 9 (1958)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Pass the Gravy (1959)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Kept Women Can't Quit (1960)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Bachelors Get Lonely (1961)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Shills Can't Cash Chips (1961)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Try Anything Once (1962)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Fish or Cut Bait (1963)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Up for Grabs (1964)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Cut Thin to Win (1965)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Widows Wear Weeds (1966)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Traps Need Fresh Bait (1967)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
All Grass Isn't Green (1970)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle

Publication Order of Gramp Wiggens Books

The Case of the Turning Tide (1941)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case of the Smoking Chimney (1943)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Case Of The Musical Cow (1960)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

The Clue of the Forgotten Murder / The Clew of the Forgotten Murder (1942)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
This Is Murder (1948)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Dead Men's Letters (1990)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Exploits of the Patent Leather Kid (2010)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Two Clues: The Clue of the Runaway Blonde / Clue's Don't Count & The Clue of the Hungry Horse (1947)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Amazing Adventures of Lester Leith (1980)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Human Zero (1981)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Whispering Sands (1981)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Pay Dirt and Other Whispering Sands Stories of Gold Fever and the Western Desert (1983)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Adventures Of Paul Pry, Volume 2 (1990)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Blonde in Lower Six Plus 3 Short Novels (1990)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Adventures Of Paul Pry (1991)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Honest Money and Other Short Novels (1991)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Danger Zone and Other Stories (2004)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Casebook of Sidney Zoom (2006)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

The Court of Last Resort: The True Story of a Team of Crime Experts Who Fought to Save the Wrongfully Convicted (1952)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Hidden Heart of Baja (1962)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Desert is Yours (1963)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Hunting the Desert Whale (1963)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Drifting Down Delta (1969)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle

Publication Order of Anthologies

Hard-Boiled Detectives(1953)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Daring Detectives(1969)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Tantalizing Locked Room Mysteries(1982)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Murder Plus(1992)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Mammoth Book of Short Spy Novels(1996)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Oxford Book of American Detective Stories(1996)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Law and Order(1997)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
The Oxford Book of Detective Stories(2000)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
A Century of Great Suspense Stories(2001)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle
Murder On The Railways(2003)Hardcover  Paperback  Kindle

Renowned as one of the best-selling American authors of the 20th century, Erle Stanley Gardner is globally recognised within the world of literature as one of the best mystery and detective novel writers of all time. His long list of novels, which includes the Perry Mason collection, are still widely accessible, even today, and are taught throughout schools and universities worldwide. But how did this once former lawyer become to be one of the greatest writers the world has seen?

Born in Malden, Massachusetts on July 17th 1889, Gardner was raised within a working class family, and moved around a lot in his childhood due to his fathers job as a mining engineer. He dropped out of Valparaiso University in Indiana, where he studied law, after just one month and instead moved to California where he took his career into his own hands and started working for a law firm as a typist. Proving to be gifted in the law industry, Gardner managed to pass the state bar exam in 1911 after learning himself on the job, and began defending clients in cases, many of which were poorer clients, to get his foot in the door.

By 1917 he had opened his first law office but the company was short-lived as Gardner decided to quit law altogether and take on a job at a sales agency to help support his wife and daughter, who was born back in 1912. He eventually returned to law in 1921 and stayed within the industry until 1933 when he released his first book within the series of the Mason series.

Gardner always stated that although he enjoyed some practices of the law industry, he had become bored with by it, and instead in his free time he started to write for pulp magazines. His first big break in the the writing world came in 1923, when his first story was published in the pulps. He set himself with the target to write at least 1,200,000 words a year, and created many characters during this period which included Lester Leith, Ken Corning and a parody of the gentleman thief’.

Following his small success in the pulps, Gardner began writing his own novels, and under the name of A.A. Fair, he wrote about a private detective firm named Cool and Lam. It was this that gave him the real confidence he needed, and in his next series of books focused on a man named Doug Selby who was known to be a highly regarded crime solver within his fictional world, a very similar situation to that of Perry Mason.

The Case of the Velvet Claws (1933)

The Case of the Velvet Claws was the book that eventually took Gardner away from the law industry in 1933, with a lot of the story set at the Pierpont Inn, which was just down the road from his law office. This was the first book which introduced the world-famous Perry Mason, a tough attorney that was exceptionally gifted within the law profession. It was always Gardner’s dream to have his novels published in the Saturday Evening Post, and to make this a reality he actually had to gradually soften down Mason’s character to make him more appealing to the editors and the readers. Thanks to this relationship, all of Gardner’s books were covered in the newspaper from the early 50s just before they were published – a real promotional contribution to the success of the series.

In Mason’s first mystery, several characters are introduced including Perry himself, Mason’s secretary, Della Street and detective, Paul Drake. What is interesting is that there is no courtroom scene at all in the first novel within the series, a scenario in which the books are famous for in the later series. The Case of the Velvet Claws is based around a very wealthy woman named Eva Griffin who claims she is being blackmailed by her husband, someone who has a lot of money and power. She turns to the famed lawyer for help as she has been unfaithful to her husband and wants to keep everything private, but in the meantime she is accused of murder, and although Perry seemed to help her, he is blamed by the adulterer for the murders.

The Case of the Howling Dog (1934)

Following the success of The Case of the Velvet Claws, Gardner followed with one more story in 1933, before penning three a year later. The Case of the Howling Dog, which was serialised in Liberty Magazine, was a high reaching story about a potential client of Mason’s who talks to him about a howling dog and a will, however Perry turns this down as he he isn’t interested in writing wills nor does not know anything about animals. However it is not until the client claims that the will was made by a person who was executed for murder, which suddenly gets Mason’s attention. This particular novel become a Hollywood movie in the same year, and is arguably regarded as the best adaptation of Gardner’s books.

Alongside the Perry Mason novels, Gardner created characters for radio programs, and many of his novels became hit-films. Finally, in 1957, the Mason novels become a long-running TV-show on CBS, another accolade to his exceptional writing. The Mason novel collection eventually ran to over 80 novels, all of which were deemed a real success and widely accepted worldwide. His readership was extremely broad across the world, and included perhaps one of the most recognised British novelists, Evelyn Waugh, who claimed that Gardner was to him the best living American writer.’

His career came to an end on March 11, 1970, when 80-year old Gardner died in Temecula and his ashes were scattered in California, where many of his novels started. At the time of his death, he was the best selling American writer of the 20th century, and his manuscripts were placed in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Centre, which are still accessible today. Gardner was then and still is highly regarded within the literature industry, with his work proving to be a great learning point for many people and aspiring writers.

Book Series In Order » Authors » Erle Stanley Gardner

2 Responses to “Erle Stanley Gardner”

  1. Carl Thomas: 1 year ago

    Really enjoyed seeing all of the Perry Mason books.Thanks

    Reply
  2. Lisa Childress: 4 years ago

    Evelyn Waugh was a man. In England, it is a recognized male name, pronounced like evening, not like ever, as in the US.

    Reply

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