The Case of Erle Stanley Gardner

by Alva Johnson

Morrow, New York, 1947. Small, thin hardcover with dust jacket. 87 pages. B&W illustrations.

This is a very good biography for its size, but please note the date. Only half of Gardner's books had been written by this time, and while some of the scripts for movies and radio had been done, the long-running Perry Mason TV show screenplays were still a long way into the future. The tone of the book is sort of "homey," with a lot of emphasis on his family and hobbies.

This book was originally published in multiple parts in the Saturday Evening Post in 1946. It tends to champion Gardner as the defender of the "underdog" in the legal system ... that is people who cannot afford adequate legal advice, and who are therefore misrepresented or falsely convicted. This concept lead to Gardner's famous The Court of Last Resort in 1952, which was his only Edgar Award (for non-fiction).