In 2015, the American Bar Association's publishing imprint, Ankerwycke, began reissuing Gardner's Perry Mason books, which had been out of print in the United States.

"[5] Gardner depicts Mason as a lawyer who fights hard for his clients and who enjoys unusual, difficult or nearly hopeless cases.

He frequently accepts clients on a whim based on his curiosity about their problem, for a minimal retainer, and finances the investigation of their cases himself if necessary.

"[citation needed]Another frequent antagonist, Lieutenant Arthur Tragg of the homicide squad, has a discussion with Mason about his approach to the law.

His family, personal life, background, and education are not depicted, although according to the first chapter of The Case of the Sleepwalker's Niece (1935), his astrological sign was Leo.

His tastes in food are known because many scenes take place in restaurants, and that he is an excellent driver as shown by his participation in the occasional car chase.

[citation needed] The HBO series presents him as being a private detective, becoming a lawyer by necessity in order to salvage the case he's working on.

He is also a veteran of World War I, having been discharged with a "blue ticket" (i.e. with negative connotations), probably because he mercy-killed some comrades who were about to die from a poison gas attack which they were too severely wounded to escape.

Julian Symons noted that Erle Stanley Gardner "had spent more than twenty years practicing law in California, and the knowledge he gained was put to good use in the Perry Mason stories, which hinge on points of law, forensic medicine or science as clever as a watch mechanism … and also the total lack of characterization".

Almost always, the second half of each novel is devoted to a courtroom scene, during which Mason arrives at the alternative explanation and proves it to the satisfaction of the court.

"Having said this, one must add that the variety of persons and circumstances and the ingenuity in contriving the details that Gardner dreamed up in his dozens of cases are astonishing and entrancing.

"[8] A hallmark of the stories is that as soon as Perry Mason (with the assistance of his secretary Della Street and private investigator Paul Drake) accepts a case, he will juggle the evidence using unusual (even bizarre) tactics to mislead the police – but (except for the very earliest novels) always in an ethical fashion: It's my contention, Della, that an attorney doesn't have to sit back and wait until a witness gets on the stand and then test his recollection simply by asking him questions.

The Case of the Curious Bride (1934) is … a good Perry Mason except for one great flaw, which the author would scarcely have been guilty of later on: he tampers with the evidence, by having a friend move into an apartment and testify to the state of the doorbells.

… One is left with the uncomfortable idea that maybe the murder did not take place as Mason reconstructs it.In the later novels, the only crime which he can be seen to commit might be illegal entry, when he and Paul Drake are searching for evidence.

In The Case of the Fugitive Nurse, for instance, close scrutiny of dental records in the identification of burned bodies is a key point.

Critic Russel B. Nye saw a pattern in Gardner's novels, calling them as formal as Japanese Noh drama.

[citation needed] In June 2015, the American Bar Association announced that its new publishing imprint, Ankerwycke, would reissue Gardner's Perry Mason novels.

[12] The 1940 Warner Bros. film, Granny Get Your Gun, was loosely based on the 1937 Perry Mason novel The Case of the Dangerous Dowager.

It had little in common with the usual portrayal of Mason, so much so that Gardner withdrew his support for a TV version of the daytime serial that began airing on CBS in 1956.

The two surviving stars of the CBS-TV series, Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale, reprised their roles as Mason and Della Street.

[15] In August 2017 a change in the writing staff for the project was announced, with Rolin Jones and Ron Fitzgerald taking over for Nic Pizzolatto.

[18][19] The HBO revival and reboot adapted its setting to Great Depression-era Los Angeles, some twenty years earlier than the CBS show (but in line with the earliest novels by Gardner).

In 2008, The Colonial Radio Theatre on the Air began producing a series of full-cast audio theater dramatizations of Gardner's Perry Mason novels, adapted by M. J.

And I thought to myself that's quite amazing to be able to serve that role …[26]The Perry Mason novels inspired Robert M. Bell, former Chief Judge of the Maryland Court of Appeals, to become a lawyer.