Author Erle Stanley Gardner (1889– 1970) wrote 82 mystery novels that featured the fictional lawyer Perry Mason. Gardner himself was a trial lawyer, having passed the bar in 1911. He wrote his first Perry Mason novel, , in 1933; all subsequent titles began with “The Case of.” In the first book, besides Mason, Gardner introduced Mason’s savvy and affectionate secretary, Della Street, and the sharp private investigator who helps Mason seek justice, Paul Drake. In the first book, Perry Mason doesn’t set foot in a courtroom at all. At the outset, Gardner wrote Mason as a tough and principled lawyer,representing his clients, even when it looked like they might be guilty.
