Description

PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION COPY OF THE CASE OF THE SUN BATHER’S DIARY, INSCRIBED BY ERLE STANLEY GARDNER TO ACTOR WILLIAM TALMAN,
WHO PLAYED D.A. HAMILTON BURGER ON THE “PERRY MASON” T.V. SERIES

GARDNER, Erle Stanley. The Case of the Sun Bather’s Diary. New York: William Morrow, 1955. Octavo, original yellow paper boards, original dust jacket.

First edition, presentation copy, inscribed to the actor who played the D.A. in the CBS Perry Mason television series: “To William Talman with all my thanks for your wonderful portrayal of Hamilton Burger.”

“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 47 of 86 books in the series. Hubin, 163. The recipient of this copy, William Talman, was personally selected by Erle Stanley Gardner to play District Attorney Hamilton Burger on the 1957-1966 television adaptation of the Perry mason series. “Perry Mason” was an elaborate production that cost CBS nearly 40 million dollars and, through his Paisano Productions, Gardner painstakingly determined the portrayal of each of the series’ characters. Talman was fired by CBS in March of 1960 following an arrest at a Hollywood party. After much controversy and intense pressure from Gardner, CBS reinstated Talman, but only for “occasional appearances.” Gardner was deeply hurt years later, when, rather than remembering Gardner’s kindness, Talman harshly criticized the “Perry Mason” scripts in public. His career in still in tatters, Talman died in 1968.

Dust jacket price-clipped. A fine presentation copy with an outstanding association.