Word: gardners
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...Gardner, who died last week at the age of 80, was the Mrs. Wagner of the genre. Since The Case of the Velvet Claws, the first of his Perry Mason mysteries, was published in 1933, his books have been bestsellers all over the world. Millions have come to know the portly defense counselor from the television serial. As far off as Saudi Arabia, Perry Mason reruns have the population wondering about the advantages of the jury system over King Feisal's rigid religious courts...
...1960s, Gardner's books were selling in 30 languages and dialects, sometimes at a rate of 20,000 copies a day. In addition to 80 Perry Mason titles and 15 works of nonfiction, Gardner produced 29 Lam-Cool books under the pseudonym A. A. Fair. All Grass Isn't Green-to be published next week -will be the last in the series, which features the exploits of Donald Lam, a small, smart legman for Bertha Cool, a plump, fortyish female private...
Canny in Court. By the end of last year, Gardner's 140 books had sold a total of 170 million copies in the U.S. Among fellow mystery writers, only Georges Simenon, the Belgian creator of the Inspector Maigret stories, surpassed Gardner in output or ranks with him in sales...
Unlike most modern mystery writers, Gardner avoided sexy scenes. His neat, complex plots were based on careful research and much personal experience. Perry Mason's canny courtroom performances are rooted in Gardner's own career as a trial lawyer in California from 1911 until the '30s. At the bar, he relied on quick wits, a disarming manner and special knowledge rather than browbeating tactics to win cases. He once had a gambling charge against a group of Chinese dropped by bringing dozens of other Chinese into the courtroom and challenging the prosecutor to match faces with...
Despite his skill, legal fees were scarce in the early Depression. To augment them, he turned to pulp writing, finally giving up the law when money began to roll in from Perry Mason. Gardner's concern for the underdog endured long after he achieved literary success. In 1948, he founded the Court of Last Resort, a private organization to aid prisoners whom he believed had been unjustly confined. He gave frequent testimony against capital punishment and often championed conservation projects against powerful interests. He was an enthusiastic sportsman who stopped hunting with a gun in favor...