Description

FIRST EDITION OF THE CASE OF THE DROWSY MOSQUITO, WARMLY INSCRIBED BY ERLE STANLEY GARDNER TO A MEMBER OF HIS “FICTION FACTORY”

GARDNER, Erle Stanley. The Case of the Drowsy Mosquito. New York: William Morrow, 1943. Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket.

First edition, inscribed to one of Gardner’s secretaries: “To Louise—who is part of the fiction factory. With love from Erle. Erle Stanley Gardner.”

“With a solid understanding of ‘action’ fiction, the Gardner yarns are a sure two-hour cure for anybody’s boredom” (Haycraft, 218). “Gardner was, as Francis M. Nevins wrote in a eulogistic essay, ‘one of the great natural storytellers,’ a writer who left behind ‘over a quarter of a century of rich creative work which will be read and reprinted and reread as long as the art of storytelling is cherished” (Steinbrunner  & Penzler, 166). This is number 23 of 86 books in the series. Hubin, 162. Louise was one of Gardner’s full-time stenographers, who he referred to collectively as “The Fiction Factory.” Periodically, Gardner would take the women to his sprawling 3,000-acre ranch in the California desert for isolated dictation sessions. “All in all, his factory produced more than a million words per year” (NPR). Gardner also referred to himself as “the fiction factory,” particularly in interviews. Pencil initials.

Book with very slight dampstaining to front board, price-clipped dust jacket with only mild rubbing. A nearly fine copy.