Jump to Content

Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Erle Stanley Gardner papers, 1932-1965.
Collection Number:
Collection Overview

Title:

Erle Stanley Gardner papers, 1932-1965

Creator/Contributor:

Gardner, Erle Stanley, 1889-1970, creator, creator.

Creator/Contributor:

Gardner, Jean Bethell, 1902-2002, correspondent.

Creator/Contributor:

William Morrow and Company, correspondent.

Abstract:

Collection of documents and correspondence, including contracts for the first six Perry Mason novels. Includes a portrait photograph of Jean Bethell.

Date:

1932 (issued)

Subject:

n-us-ca
Detective and mystery stories, American -- Authorship
Authors, American -- California
Écrivains américains -- Californie
William Morrow and Company -- Correspondence
Gardner, Erle Stanley -- 1889-1970 -- Archives
Gardner, Erle Stanley -- 1889-1970 -- Correspondence
Gardner, Jean Bethell -- 1902-2002 -- Correspondence
Gardner, Jean Bethell -- 1902-2002 -- Portraits

Note:

Purchase from Mysterious Bookshop; 2020.
Associated collection: Erle Stanley Gardner papers. Also located at: Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas at Austin. 300 West 21st Street, Austin, TX, 78712, USA.
Erle Stanley Gardner (July 17, 1889 - March 11, 1970) was a California lawyer and author, best known for his series of mystery novels featuring Los Angeles criminal defense attorney Perry Mason. His first novel, The Case of the Velvet Claws, was published in 1933. Writing under the pseudonym A.A. Fair he also published a series of novels about the private detective duo Donald Lam and Bertha Cool. At the time of his death, Gardner was the best-selling American author of the 20th century.
Jean Bethell (May 19, 1902 - December 5, 2002) was born Agnes Helene (or Helen) Walter in Miles City, Montana. She became a personal secretary to Erle Stanley Gardner in 1921 and is popularly believed to have been the inspiration for the character of Della Street (Perry Mason's secretary), though neither she nor Gardner ever admitted it. Jean and Erle were married on August 16, 1968 after the death of Gardner's first wife, Natalie Frances Talbert (from whom he had been separated, but never divorced, since the 1930s).
Erle Stanley Gardner papers, BANC MSS 2020/354, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
In English.

Type:

Photograph
contracts.
photographs.
Contracts.
Photographs.
Contrats.
Photographies.

Physical Description:

print
0.2 (1

Language:

English

Origin:

California