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This hardcover G&D reprint (this is NOT the 1933 true first from William Morrow) is pretty sad. It has no dust jacket. It's ex-library with a manila card holder glued to front pastedown, FFE stamped in red "Withdrawn Toledo-Lucas County Public Library." A swath of clear box tape has been run down the spine, spreading an extra inch across each of the adjoining boards. (Could presumably be removed with heptane and patience; we have not attempted.) Some simpleton has underlined about half the lines of text in the book in black ink, occasionally adding some vital margin notes. On page 36, for instance, Mason trails a man who spends 45 minutes in a speakeasy. A "speakeasy," our diligent previous reader notes to bottom page margin, in ink, is "a place where alcoholic drinks are sold illegally during Prohibition." Not content to stop there, though, he then adds at SIDE margin, in ink, a further note that Prohibition was enacted via Amendment XVII and repealed with Amendment XXI, meaning it ran 1919-1933 (the year of first publication of this book.) Further on, this master of marginalia -- who apparently learned American English as a second language while growing up on Mars -- explains to us (in ink) that "flim-flam" means humbug, deception, swindle. etc. AND this book smells musty. So why is it worth anything? Published 1933, "The Case of the Velvet Claws" is Gardner's first Perry Mason mystery, the courtroom protagonist inspired by Earl Rogers, a trial attorney who appeared in 77 murder trials but lost only three, though the tales were otherwise based on the author's own madcap methods of practicing criminal defense law -- including representing poor Mexican and Chinese immigrants -- in Ventura and Los Angeles in the 1920s. (At one point Gardner, informed his Chinese small-business clients were about to be harassed via arrest on minor business-licensing charges, called them all together, shuffled them, and sent each to occupy another man's premises. As they each answered to the wrong name upon arrest, Gardner proceeded to appear in court with witnesses and prove the city had, in each case, arrested the wrong man.) Both the Morrow and G&D 1933 editions are now considered "legendary rarities of the genre," with "very good" jacketed G&Ds commanding $2,500, Morrow firsts asking $1,600 even WITHOUT jackets. (Jacketed early Harraps from Great Britain -- 1934 -- can be equally pricey, though as usual the cheaper Blakiston Triangle and Walter J. Black reprints lag far behind.) A 15-minute radio program (1943-1955) resulted, followed by a long-running (1957-1966) classic hour-long television series cleving more closely to Gardner's model, though portly star Raymond Burr did notably less frenetic running around as the years went by. (Burr actually tested for the role of game but hapless prosecutor Hamilton Burger. When Gardner saw him, he exclaimed Burr was "the embodiment of Perry Mason!" -- though producers did insist Burr lose 60 lbs. before filming began.) Gardner (1889-1970) wrote nearly a hundred novels and was the best-selling American author at the time of his death. This book is complete and holding together well, though the condition is not what might usually be deemed "collectible"; 310 pp., now reduced from $190.
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