Edited sentence: Gardner provided more information about Mason's character in the earliest novels, although his character is largely taken for granted in later novels, as well as the television series and movies.In "The Case of the Velvet Claws" (1933) the first of Earl Stanley Gardner's Perry Mason novels, the fictional attorney tells of himself: "If you look me up through some family lawyer or some corporation lawyer, he'll probably tell you that I'm a shyster"