Erle Stanley Gardner
| Erle Stanley Gardner | |
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Erle Stanley Gardner in 1966
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| Born |
July 17, 1889 Malden, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | March 11, 1970 (aged 80) Temecula, California, U.S. |
| Pen name | Kyle Corning, A.A. Fair, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Robert Parr, Les Tillray |
| Occupation | Lawyer, writer |
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| Genre | Detective fiction, true crime, travel writing |
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| Children | 1 |
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Erle Stanley Gardner (July 17, 1889 – March 11, 1970) was an American lawyer and author. Though best known for the Perry Mason series of detective stories, he wrote numerous other novels and shorter pieces, as well as a series of nonfiction books, mostly narrations of his travels through Baja California and other regions in Mexico.
The best-selling American author of the 20th century at the time of his death, Gardner also published under numerous pseudonyms, including A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray and Robert Parr.
Born in Malden, Massachusetts, Erle Stanley Gardner graduated from Palo Alto High School in 1909 and enrolled at Valparaiso University School of Law in Indiana. He was suspended after approximately one month when his interest in boxing became a distraction. He returned to California, pursued his legal education on his own, and passed the state bar exam in 1911.
In 1912, Gardner wed Natalie Frances Talbert; they had a daughter, Grace. He opened his first law office in Merced in 1917, but closed it after accepting a position at a sales agency. In 1921, he returned to law as a member of the Ventura firm Sheridan, Orr, Drapeau, and Gardner, where he remained until 1933.
Gardner enjoyed litigation and the development of trial strategy, but was otherwise bored by legal practice. In his spare time, he began writing for pulp magazines; his first story was published in 1923. He created many series characters for the pulps, including the ingenious Lester Leith, a parody of the "gentleman thief" in the tradition of A. J. Raffles; and Ken Corning, crusading lawyer, crime sleuth, and archetype for his most successful creation, Perry Mason. In his early years writing for the pulp magazine market, Gardner set himself a quota of 1,200,000 words a year. When asked why his heroes always defeated villains with the last bullet in their guns, Gardner answered, "At three cents a word, every time I say ‘Bang’ in the story I get three cents. If you think I’m going to finish the gun battle while my hero still has fifteen cents worth of unexploded ammunition in his gun, you’re nuts". Early on, he typed his stories himself using two fingers, but later dictated them to a team of secretaries.
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