Perry Mason

Perry Mason is a fictional character, a criminal defense lawyer who is the main character in works of detective fiction written by Erle Stanley Gardner. Perry Mason is featured in more than 80 novels and short stories, most of which involve a client's murder trial. Typically, Mason establishes his client's innocence by implicating another character, who then confesses.

The character of Perry Mason was adapted for motion pictures and a long-running radio series. These were followed by its best-known adaptation, the CBS television series Perry Mason (1957–66) starring Raymond Burr. A second television series, The New Perry Mason starring Monte Markham, ran from 1973 to 1974; and 30 Perry Mason television films ran from 1985 to 1995, with Burr reprising the role of Mason in 26 of them prior to his death in 1993.

The Perry Mason series ranks third in the top ten bestselling book series. 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.

Perry Mason (TV movies)

This is a list of the Perry Mason TV movies (1985–95), a successful series of 30 television films aired on NBC as a sequel to the popular CBS-TV series Perry Mason. After a hiatus of nearly 20 years, Raymond Burr reprised his role as fictional Los Angeles defense attorney Perry Mason in 26 of the television films. After Burr died in 1993, Paul Sorvino and Hal Holbrook starred in the remaining four that aired from 1993 to 1995.

Background

The original Perry Mason television series was broadcast on CBS television from 1957 to 1966. Raymond Burr starred as Perry Mason, a fictional Los Angeles criminal defense lawyer. The character was created by American author and attorney Erle Stanley Gardner.

Television producer Dean Hargrove resurrected the Perry Mason character popularized in the 1957–66 television series in a series of television films for NBC beginning in 1985. Hargrove was able to bring back the two then-surviving major stars, Raymond Burr and Barbara Hale (reprising their roles as Mason and Della Street, respectively) for the first telefilm, Perry Mason Returns, in which Mason resigns his position as an appellate court judge to defend Street on a murder charge.

Perry Mason bibliography

The following is a list of the Perry Mason novels and short stories by Erle Stanley Gardner, published from 1933 to 1973.

Many Perry Mason novels were first published in magazines, most often The Saturday Evening Post, some with different titles. Sixteen appeared in the Toronto Star Weekly in condensed form. All books were first published by William Morrow and Company, New York. Most were published simultaneously in Toronto.

Six of the novels were adapted for a series of Perry Mason films produced in the 1930s. Many of the novels and short stories were adapted for the CBS television series Perry Mason (1957–66); details are available at the list of episodes for the TV series.

Novels

1930s