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Erle Stanley Gardner

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Author

The Resume

    (July 17, 1889-March 11, 1970)
    Born in Malden, Massachusetts
    Lawyer and author
    Created the character Perry Mason
    Titles included 'The Case of the Velvet Claws' (1933), 'The Case of the Counterfeit Eye' (1935), 'The Case of the Perjured Parrot' (1939), 'The Case of the Crooked Candle' (1944), 'The Case of the Grinning Gorilla' (1952), 'The Case of the Calendar Girl' (1958), 'The Case of the Blonde Bonanza' (1962) and 'The Case of the Fabulous Fake' (1969)

Why he might be annoying:

    He was expelled from Valparaiso University for punching a professor and from law school for getting involved in illegal boxing matches.
    He used a large number of pseudonyms, including A.A. Fair, Kyle Corning, Charles M. Green, Carleton Kendrake, Charles J. Kenny, Les Tillray and Robert Parr.
    The titles of all his Perry Mason novels started 'The Case of the....'
    His plots were often formulaic.

Why he might not be annoying:

    Although he attended law school for only one month, he learned enough as a legal clerk to pass the bar exam when he was 21.
    He sold over 300 million books, making him the best-selling American author.
    Evelyn Waugh called him the best living American writer (1949).
    His daughter said, 'He once told me that anyone who wanted to figure out his plots could do it, but the pacing was so fast, they never wanted to put his books down long enough to think.'
    With friends in the legal and forensics fields, he formed a 'Court of Last Resort' to free people who had been wrongly convicted.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 5 Votes: 20.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 54.55% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 2 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 23 Votes: 52.17% Annoying