(Photo by Carla Humbert.  All rights reserved.)

PERRY MASON DAYS 2006

Five long-dead mystery writers were onhand at the Oroville (California) branch of the Butte County Library to discuss their lives and their work, as well as field questions from the audience:

Anna Katherine Green, mother of the mystery novel, portrayed by Valerie Zwirn (back row, left).

Dashiell Hammett, one of the founding fathers of the hard-boiled detective novel, as impersonated by Mike Humbert (back row, middle).

Agatha Christie, grand dame of the victorian mystery, embodied by Judith Davies (back row, right).

Louisa May Alcott, best known as the author of Little Women, although she also wrote several mysteries.  Ms. Alcott was played by Alberta Tracy (front row, left).

Mildred Wirt Benson, first ghostwriter of the Nancy Drew mystery series, brought to life by Merrily Stover (front row, right).

The event was organized by Pat Koskinen.

Why Perry Mason Days?  To honor the memory of local boy Erle Stanley Gardner, creator of the famous shyster.  Gardner, who was expelled from Oroville High School for “hooliganism,” eventually wrote over eighty Perry Mason novels.  In addition, he created several other successful mystery series (Ed Jenkins, D.A. Doug Selby, Donald Lam & Bertha Cool, Terry Clane, etc.) and also produced a great deal of non-fiction.  He died in 1970.