ERLE STANLEY GARDNER  by  William F. Nolan                                                  Page Number Eight


was cast very much in the pulp tradition; Gardner admitted that "smash-bang action" was really the basis of Mason's exploits. Certainly, in these early novels, Mason was much closer to a Black Mask private eye than to the calculating courtroom attorney he later became. In his first novelistic adventure, he actually carried a gun and was not averse to punching someone in the jaw. From his behavior in the early books, Mason could have been convicted of assault and battery, bribery, illegal wiretapping, fleeing a warrant, breaking and entering, reckless driving, and withholding and destroying evidence; his illegal misdeeds were numerous.

Ironically, critics later took Gardner to task for his lack of action and for the author's dependence, almost wholly, on dialogue. Francis Nevins, a longtime Mason fan, came to Gardner's defense in Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers: "What vivifies these novels is the sheer readability, the breakneck pacing, the involuted plots, the fireworks displays of courtroom tactics (many based on gimmicks Gardner used in his own law practice), and the dialogue, where each line is a jab in a complex form of oral combat (p. 358).

Gardner was not always happy with his own efforts. In the mid-1930s, after more than a dozen Mason novels had been printed, including The Case of the Lame Canary, he became frustrated over what he saw as a mounting lack of realism in the series. In the future, he planned to keep "a tighter rein on his formula-driven plots. Critic Russel B. Nye analyzed the Gardner novels in his comprehensive study, The Unembarrassed Muse:

"Each Mason plot is divided into seven recognizable sections, he noted, "as formalized as Japanese Noh drama." (p. 255) 

He listed the seven sections:

1. The case is introduced.

2. Mason investigates.

3. His client is wrongly accused.

4. Mason investigates further.

5. The trial begins.

6. Mason reverses the case by introducing new evidence.

7. The true culprit is exposed in court.

Of course, Nye was correct-but he did not mention the diverse complications and fresh twists Gardner brought to this basic formula to maintain pace and suspense. He never bored or disappointed his loyal readers.

"The Mason of these novels, declared Nevins, "is a tiger in the social-Darwinian jungle, totally self-reliant, asking no favors, despising the weaklings who want society to care for them, willing to take any risk for a client no matter how unfairly the client plays the game with him (Twentieth-Century Crime and Mystery Writers, p. 358). The Mason formula found a strong advocate in mystery master Raymond Chandler. In a 1946 letter to the author, he continents on Gardner's "artistic performance and "intensity."

That intensity may be a matter of style, situation, character, emotional tone, or idea..

It may also be a perfection of control over the movement of a story similar to the control a great pitcher has over the ball. That is to me what you have more than anything else and more than anyone else.. . . Every page throws the hook for the next. I call this a kind of genius. (Selected Letters, p. 69)

Retreat to Nature

In the autumn of 1937, roaming through California's back country, Gardner discovered his "ideal retreat," set outside Temecula amid rolling hills one hundred miles southeast of Los Angeles. It was here, in an area between ocean and desert, that he established his Rancho del Paisano-eventually adding twenty- seven new buildings on land encompassing three thousand acres. Gardner hated telephones, considering them a noisy distraction. For many years he refused to have one installed at his ranch. As the actor Ralph Bellamy explained, "If you wanted to get hold of Gardner, you had to call a Standard station in Temecula. When one of Gardner's crew drove past the station, the attendant would flag him down and relay the message.

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