Erle Stanley Gardner

Erle Stanley Gardner was a famous writer.

He wrote many books about lawyers.

He also worked as a lawyer. He helped people in court. He wanted to help those treated unfairly.

He wrote a series about Perry Mason. This character was a very smart lawyer. Many people loved these stories.

Gardner wrote a lot of words every year. He even wrote books about his trips. He loved to travel by boat and plane.

He was a very successful author. Many people around the world read his books.

Erle Stanley Gardner was a very famous American writer.

He was the top-selling American author when he died in 1970. Most people know him for his Perry Mason books. These are stories about a smart lawyer.

He wrote many of these books in Ventura, California.

Gardner was also a real lawyer. He worked to help people who were treated unfairly. He helped immigrants who had little money. He even started a group called the Court of Last Resort. This group helped people who were put in jail by mistake.

This work earned him a special prize called an Edgar Award.

Gardner loved to write many words. He once set a goal to write 1,200,000 words each year! He also loved to travel. He wrote books about his trips to Mexico. He traveled by boat, truck, and even helicopter. He loved the Baja California area very much. His ashes were scattered there after he died.

Erle Stanley Gardner was a very famous American writer and lawyer.

He is best known for creating the Perry Mason series. These are legal detective stories about a smart lawyer. At the time of his death in 1970, he was the best-selling American author of the 20th century. He also wrote many other novels and short stories. He even wrote nonfiction books about his travels in Mexico. Gardner used many different pen names to publish his work. One of these names was A. A. Fair. He even once wrote a story using his character Della Street as the author.

Gardner had a very busy way of working. In his early years, he set a huge goal for himself. He wanted to write 1,200,000 words every single year!

At first, he typed all his stories using only two fingers. Later on, he changed how he worked. He would dictate his stories to a team of secretaries. This helped him produce a massive amount of writing. He wrote more than 80 Perry Mason novels. He also created other famous characters like Lester Leith and Ken Corning.

Gardner's life as a lawyer helped him become a great writer. He studied law at Valparaiso University School of Law in Indiana. He even passed the California State Bar exam in 1911.

He started his career by working as a typist at a law firm. Later, he worked as a trial lawyer. He focused on defending people who had very little money. This included many Chinese and Mexican immigrants. His real-life legal experiences helped him write very detailed and realistic plots. He loved the strategy used during big court trials.

His work as a lawyer led to a very important project. In the 1940s, he founded the Court of Last Resort. This group helped people who were imprisoned unfairly. They looked for cases where people did not get a fair trial. This work was very serious and important. It earned him an Edgar Award in 1952. This was his only Edgar Award, which he won in the Best Fact Crime category. His work with this group helped start a way of helping the wrongly convicted. This paved the way for groups like the Innocence Project.

Many people know Gardner through movies and television shows. The Perry Mason character was inspired by a real lawyer named Earl Rogers.

Warner Bros. made several Perry Mason films in the 1930s. Later, the character moved to the radio from 1943 to 1955. In 1957, a famous TV show began starring Raymond Burr. Gardner watched a screen test of Burr and knew he was the right choice. Gardner also loved the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. He traveled there by boat, truck, and helicopter. After he died, his ashes were scattered across that beautiful land.

Erle Stanley Gardner was a prolific American author and attorney.

He is most famous for creating the Perry Mason series of legal detective stories. At the time of his death in 1970, he was the best-selling American author of the 20th century. Gardner was a man of many roles and identities. He published books under many different pseudonyms, which are fake names used by authors. These names included A. A. Fair, Carl Franklin, and Charles M. Green. He even once used the name of his character, Della Street, to publish a story. Beyond fiction, he wrote nonfiction about his travels through Mexico. His work reached a massive international audience.

Gardner's writing process was incredibly intense and disciplined. In his early years, he set a massive annual quota for himself. He aimed to write 1,200,000 words every single year.

To achieve this, he changed his method of production over time. Initially, he typed all his stories himself using only two fingers. As his career grew, he began dictating his stories to a team of secretaries. This allowed him to produce a vast amount of literature. He eventually wrote more than 80 novels in the Perry Mason series alone.

His legal background provided the foundation for his storytelling. Gardner studied at Valparaiso University School of Law in Indiana. Although he was briefly suspended due to an interest in boxing, he returned to California to finish his education. He passed the California State Bar examination in 1911. He began his career as a typist at a law firm for three years. Once admitted to the Bar, he worked as a trial lawyer. He often defended impoverished people, specifically Chinese and Mexican immigrants. These real-world experiences gave his fictional plots a sense of reality.

Gardner used his legal expertise to champion justice for others. In the 1940s, he founded an organization called the Court of Last Resort. This group focused on helping people who were imprisoned unfairly. They sought to correct miscarriages of justice caused by poor legal representation. They also looked for errors in forensic evidence or misconduct by police.

This work was highly respected by the legal community. In 1952, he won an Edgar Award for his book about this work. This award was in the Best Fact Crime category. His efforts helped inspire modern organizations like the Innocence Project.

The character of Perry Mason was inspired by a real person. Gardner modeled the attorney after Earl Rogers, a famous trial lawyer. Rogers was known for his incredible success in murder trials. He also used visuals, such as charts and diagrams, during trials. This was a new practice before it became common in courtrooms. Gardner's novels focused on detailed plots rather than deep character studies. He used his own knowledge of trial strategy to make the stories engaging. This combination of law and mystery made the series a global success.

Perry Mason transitioned successfully through many different types of media. Warner Bros. produced several feature films featuring the character in the 1930s. The character also became a popular radio program from 1943 to 1955. In 1957, the character moved to television as a long-running courtroom drama. The actor Raymond Burr became the most famous face of the role. Gardner famously identified Burr as the perfect Mason while watching a screen test.

Even Gardner made an uncredited appearance as a judge in a 1966 episode.

Gardner's life and legacy continue to be recognized today. He had a deep passion for the Baja California peninsula in Mexico. He explored the region by boat, truck, airplane, and helicopter. After he passed away from cancer in 1970, his ashes were scattered there. His manuscripts and personal items are preserved at the Harry Ransom Center. In the world of puzzles, his name is quite famous. He holds a high ratio of mentions in the New York Times crossword puzzles. This is due to the unique combination of letters in his first name.