Thu 28 Jul 2011
Famous Mystery Firsts: ERLE STANLEY GARDNER – The Case of the Velvet Claws (1933).
Posted by Steve under Authors , Collecting , Covers[9] Comments
THE FRONT COVER:
THE INSIDE FRONT JACKET FLAP:
To Readers of Detective Stories:
One day last December our editorial and sales departments agreed that too many mystery stories are being published in America and decided to accept no more such novels for at least six months. The next day two manuscripts were received. They were both by the same author. They were both detective stories. They were both accepted at once for publication.
The Case of the Velvet Claws is one of those manuscripts. The second will be published in the fall. (*) And both sales and editorial departments claim the credit for being the first to prophecy that Erle Stanley Gardner will find a place immediately as one of the most popular authors of detective fiction.
We hope that after reading this book you will agree we were justified in changing our minds.
* The Case of the Sulky Girl.
Perry Mason, criminal lawyer, is retained by a much-too-beautiful woman who obviously is concealing more than she is telling. She has heard that Perry Mason not only a law unto himself, but that he never lets a client down. She has been indiscreet, and is involved in blackmail.
The case is immediately complicated by murder, and Perry Mason finds himself as busy keeping clear of the law himself as he is in saving his client. The action is swift, dramatic, convincing. The handling and solution of the case are well developed and logical — perhaps because the author is a practicing lawyer with a trained legal mind.
Mr. Gardner’s writing has a style and personality of its own. His characters are colorful and vital. The lawyer, Perry Mason, and his charming secretary, Della Street, we believe, will become famous characters to all detective story enthusiasts.
386 Fourth Avenue New York
THE INSIDE BACK JACKET FLAP: A detailed synopsis of –In Time for Murder, by R. A. J. Walling, a mystery novel also published by Morrow.
THE BACK COVER: A statement of the philosophy of the publisher relative to detective fiction, and a list of the titles they had recently published:
R. A. WALLING
Stroke of One
–In Time for Murder
CHARLES G. BOOTH
Those Seven Alibis
Gold Bullets
CHRISTOPHER BUSH
The Case of the April Fools
Cut Throat
WALTER F. EBERHARDT
A Dagger in the Dark
ROGER DENBIE (upcoming)
Death on the Limited (April 1933)
COVER PRICE: $2.00.
NOTE: Thanks to Bill Pronzini and Mark Terry for the cover images used to provide the information above.
July 28th, 2011 at 4:52 pm
BOYO, were they ever understating in their sales-rap ! Unknowingly, of course, in ’33,when publishing the first Perry Mason, but just think- you publish a book, you think it can be successful- and then it turns out to become a legend !
TheDoc
July 28th, 2011 at 8:24 pm
Sometimes publishers actually get it right. (The rest of their line hasn’t fared nearly as well, historically speaking.)
I’m not sure, but this may have been the first Perry Mason novel I read. If so, it wasn’t the First Edition you see here. I think Morrow reissued many of the PM hardcovers sometime in the early to mid-1950s. I spotted them on the shelf in the adult section the first time I was allowed back there. (I can still picture it in my mind’s eye.)
I took this one and a Detective Book Club edition that had a Manning Coles story with Tommy Hambledon in it. Both books were terrific, I thought, and I’ve been hooked on mysteries ever since.
July 29th, 2011 at 2:07 am
The first time I read this I was completely taken by surprise. Where was the courtroom scene? where was the hysterical confession on the witness stand? Obviously the TV show had to find a gimmick. as for the writer’s gimmick– Erle loved all that crazy mix-up business with guns, didn’t he? It all started with the bullet in the bathtub.
July 30th, 2011 at 12:11 pm
You’re right, John, about the early Perry Masons being a lot different from the formulaic novels they morphed into, and the TV series had plenty to do with that. I also think that Mason lost his rougher edges once the novels started being serialized in the SATURDAY EVENING POST, but I’d have to start reading them again before I could say for sure.
Not that I’d mind, of course, but with so many other books to be read, chances are slim to none.
July 30th, 2011 at 6:19 pm
The books and TV show differences are few compared to the radio show. The show was a fifteen minute soap opera. I listened to one story line where an evil step-mother framed a woman, took her child, and helped the evil DA frame Perry. Everything short of Della being tied to the railroad tracks.
If you wish to listen to some radio Perry Mason try…
http://www.archive.org/details/Perry_Mason_Radio_Show
July 30th, 2011 at 9:39 pm
I have quite few reels of the Perry Mason radio show in my collection. I haven’t listened to very many, partly because I was afraid that if I did, they’d become addictive, with each episode ending on a cliffhanger, and I wouldn’t be able to quit.
Taking this train of thought off on another tangent, the Perry Mason radio show was at one time going to become an afternoon TV serial, also on CBS. When Gardner objected to the romantic elements they were going to include, he withdrew his permission. They went ahead with the serial, though, and called it THE EDGE OF NIGHT, which ran for years, later on switching networks to ABC.
Most of the episodes that you can see online come from the ABC run. I’ve watched some of these, but I forced myself away from them. Too addictive also!
Here’s the Wikipedia link to the PERRY MASON radio show, which will also lead you to their EDGE OF NIGHT page,if anyone would care to:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Mason_%28radio%29
October 2nd, 2011 at 1:59 am
I have a (jacketless, middling condition) copy of “The Case of the Velvet Claws” that may be a first edition, and I’ve always wanted to confirm that one way or the other. The copyright says 1933, but that’s hardly definitive. However, the last page (310) ends with the note that “‘The Case of the Sulky Girl’, by Erle Stanley Gardner, will be published in the fall of 1933”. It would odd for subsequent printings to include that, but then maybe they did. Anyway, I’d appreciate any insight.
October 2nd, 2011 at 7:35 pm
First editions of Morrow titles in the 30s and 40s: same dates on title page and copyright page, and no additional printings listed on copyright page. The first edition of THE CASE OF THE VELVET CLAWS does include a note on page 310 advertising THE CASE OF THE SULKY GIRL, so if no additional printings are listed in D. Baldwin’s copy, it’s a first.
October 2nd, 2011 at 7:36 pm
Thanks, Bill!