Earle Stanley Gardner was born on July 17, 1889 in Malden, MA. He was an attorney,
boxer, philanthropist, writer of detective novels and short stories, travel books, and
numerous articles. He has written over a hundred books. At the time of his death in 1970,
he was the best-selling American author of the 20th Century. He published under
numerous pseudonyms, including A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning and Charles M. Green.
The Case of the Velvet Claws was published in 1933. It was the first in what would
become a long series of stories featuring the cool, intelligent lawyer Perry Mason. The
story is set in Ventura, California, mostly at the Pierpont Inn. Mason's client is Eva Belter,
who had been conspiring to blackmail her husband with a tabloid editor. But then her
husband is found murdered. Is Eva responsible? The police have their suspicions. The
Case of the Velvet Claws sold twenty-eight million copies in its first fifteen years. The
character Perry Mason was made into a popular TV show by CBS that ran from 1957
to 1966 starring Raymond Burr.