Erle Stanley Gardner

Erle Stanley Gardner was born in Massachusetts in 1889 and died in 1970.  He was the master of American mystery fiction. 

Gardner was a civil rights lawyer practising in Ventura, California before becoming an author and as a result his plots contain intricate, twisting plots.  These are whodunits in the very best tradition.  In a career that spanned five decades, Gardner wrote 146 books, 85 of which feature the famous lawyer Perry Mason.  The fictional attorney became the basis of a popular TV series, achieving an enviable record for winning his cases.  At the height of his popularity in the 1960's Gardner was selling an amazing average 26,000 copies of his novels a day.