Perry Mason: novels #1 and #2

I love a good fictional courtroom drama. And that makes Perry Mason a perfect fit for me. Perry Mason first appeared in book form, written by long-time pulp author Erle Stanley Gardner. The pulps were a wonderful training ground for writers, and that’s where Gardner honed his craft.

As I looked for a publicity photo of Gardner, I found various ones from over the years. But the strange thing was that none showed him smiling. I’m not sure what to make of that, but all of the “official” photos show a solemn man.

Erle Stanley Gardner passed the California state bar in 1911. That’s right, the author of those great Perry Mason stories was a real lawyer. No wonder his courtroom scenes seemed so real. But his interests extended beyond the law to writing. His first pulp magazine story published was “The Police of the House” in the June 1921 issue of Breezy Stories. He went on to publish in some of pulpdom’s greatest magazines: Black Mask, Top-Notch Magazine, Sunset, Fawcett’s Triple-X, Argosy, Flynn’s Detective Fiction, Clues, Ace High, Dime Detective, Double Detective… and that’s just scratching the surface.

In addition to creating Perry Mason, Gardner also was the talent behind other character series: Cool and Lam, Doug Selby, Ed Jenkins, Bob Larkin, Speed Dash, Paul Pry, Lester Leith, and the list just goes on and on. Whew! This guy was a prolific writer. He wrote over a million words a year, putting him in an elite class with fellow pulp writer Walter B. Gibson. He wrote so much that he feared he would dilute the demand for his work. As a result, he started writing some of his character series under various pen names. He wrote the Cool and Lam books under the pen name A.A. Fair, for example. Some of his other pen names were Charles M. Green, Grant Holiday, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Robert Park, Robert Parr and Les Tillray.

The Perry Mason novels are for what Erle Stanley Gardner is best known. He wrote 86 Perry Mason stories, and I’ve read them all… and in order! I never found a dud in the bunch. Admittedly, some were better than others, but each one kept my interest and kept me turning the pages into the wee hours of the night.

As I finished reading each of these Perry Mason tales, I wrote a couple paragraphs summarizing my thoughts on the story. I’ll be resurrecting those comments about the Perry Mason books here on ThePulp.Net on an occasional basis. For right now, let’s take a look at the first two in the series.

The Case of the Velvet Claws

“The Case of the Velvet Claws” was the first Perry Mason mystery written by Erle Stanley Gardner and published in March 1933. For the first time, we meet Perry, his secretary Della Street, and his favorite detective, Paul Drake. District Attorney Hamilton Burger and Lieutenant Tragg don’t appear in this story. And most telling, there is no courtroom scene in the entire novel. These would be introduced in later Perry Mason stories.

The plot has to do with a mystery woman who calls herself Eva Griffin. She comes to Perry Mason claiming she is being blackmailed. She wants him to help her. But before things are done, she is accused of murder. And in turn, she puts the blame on Perry Mason himself! But Perry avoids being double-crossed, and valiantly fights to see that she is cleared of the charges.

A good introduction to the series; I really liked it. But I missed the courtroom scenes prevalent in the later books.

In 1936, this story was filmed by Warner Bros. Pictures with William Warren starring as Perry Mason and Claire Dodd as Della Street. Perry Mason appeared in a series of six motion pictures for Warner Bros. between 1934 and 1937. “The Case of the Velvet Claws” was the fifth installment. The story also appeared in the Perry Mason television series, adapted for the March 21, 1963 broadcast, with the incomparable Raymond Burr starring as Perry.

The Case of the Sulky Girl

“The Case of the Sulky Girl” was the second of the Perry Mason books, published in September 1933. Perry, Della and Paul Drake all appear. And for the first time, Mason’s young law clerk Frank Everly. Still no appearance by District Attorney Hamilton Burger or Lieutenant Tragg. But this is the first Perry Mason story to feature his courtroom manipulations.

The story has a beautiful young blond with a fiery temper, Frances Celane, being blackmailed. Her uncle and guardian, Edward Norton, won’t give her any money from her trust, so that she can pay off the blackmailer. And so before you know it, he’s dead and she’s accused of his murder. She’s secretly been married, and that’s the basis for the blackmail. Did her new husband do it? He says so, but Perry suspects he’s just trying to cover for his new bride. Obviously, his client is innocent. (Aren’t they always?) So just who did murder Edward Norton?

All the clues are there. See if you can figure it out. It’s a good story; and it’s good to finally see Perry in court. That was missing from the first book, and was to become his signature.

This story never made it to the movies. It was not one of the six Warner Bros. films of the 1930s. But it was adapted for television in an early first-season episode of Perry Mason, and was broadcast Oct. 19, 1957.

I’ll admit I’m a sucker for a courtroom drama, whether it be Perry Mason or more recent TV fare like L.A. Law or Boston Legal or Franklin and Bash or Suits or The Good Wife. But there’s something about the Perry Mason stories that puts them at the top of their class. Perhaps it’s my love of the old pulp magazines, and Erle Stanley Gardner’s firmly-established pulp roots. The novels were well-crafted by a master writer who was, at the peak of his career, the world’s best-selling author. If you’re only familiar with Perry Mason from the TV shows, you should try one of the books. Any one. You can’t go wrong.