Perry Mason Part I

Erle Stanley Gardner (1889-1970) wrote over 140 books in a 38 year career. Eighty-six of the books were novels with his most famous character, Perry Mason. My focus in this blog will be the astonishing fact that every one of those novels was published in paperback by Pocket Books. This may be the longest, and most profitable, publishing relationship of this sort. 

The first, The Case of the (TCOT) Velvet Claws, was published in 1933 with Pocket's edition dating from 1940. The last, TCOT Postponed Murder, was published posthumously in 1973, the Pocket following in 1974.

The 82 novels were reprinted many times by Pocket. I estimate there are around 900 printings. The covers on the reprints show the changing approach to catching the reader's attention at the drugstore. Some are awful and, I will argue in a later post, some are the best ever produced. For example - 

Pocket 223 - 1st printing - May 1943

art by H. Lawrence Hoffman

Pocket 223 - 21st printing - January 1948

art by Paul Kinnear

Pocket 242 - 16th printing - July 1953

Photograph cover

Pocket C-378 - 1st printing - November 1959

art by Charles Binger