John Grisham

John Grisham
Grisham in 2008.
Born	John Ray Grisham, Jr. February 8, 1955 (1955-02-08) (age 56) Jonesboro, Arkansas, United States
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Mississippi State University University of Mississippi School of Law
Period	1989-present
Genres	Legal thriller Crime fiction Football
Influences John Steinbeck John le Carré
jgrisham.com

John Ray Grisham, Jr. (born February 8, 1955) is an American author, best known for his popular legal thrillers. Before becoming a writer, he was a successful lawyer and politician. As of 2008, his books have sold over 250 million copies worldwide.^[1]

Early life and education

John Grisham, the second oldest of five siblings, was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Southern Baptist parents of modest means. His father worked as a construction worker and a cotton farmer, while his mother was a homemaker.^[2] After relocating frequently, the family settled in 1967 in the town of Southaven in DeSoto County, Mississippi, where Grisham graduated from Southaven High School. He played quarterback for the school football team. Encouraged by his mother, the young Grisham was an avid reader who was especially influenced by the work of John Steinbeck, whose clarity he admired.

In 1977, Grisham received a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Mississippi State University. He later tried out for the baseball team at Delta State University but was dismissed by the coach, former Boston Red Sox pitcher Dave "Boo" Ferriss. Grisham and Ferris have since teamed to host a fundraiser for Delta State Baseball, at which the two discussed how and why Ferris dismissed Grisham, telling him he should "stick to the books" after Grisham failed miserably in his attempts to hit a college-level curve ball.

Grisham earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. During law school he switched interests from tax law to criminal and general civil litigation.

Career

John Grisham's first relatively stable job was to water bushes at a nursery for a dollar an hour. He was soon promoted by the owner to a fence crew for $1.50 an hour. He wrote in one of his articles about the job: "there was no future in it." ^[3]

He found another job with a plumbing contractor when he was sixteen and in his own words "never drew inspiration from that miserable work." ^[4]

Through a contact of his father, he managed to find work on a highway asphalt crew in Mississippi. He was seventeen then. It was during this time, working as a highway asphalt crew, that an unfortunate incident got him "serious" about college. A fight had broken out on a Friday and the resulting gun fire made Grisham run to his restroom. He didn't come out until the police had "hauled away rednecks". He hitchhiked home and started thinking about college.^[5]

His next work was in the retail sector. He worked at a store in the men's underwear department and according to Grisham the job was "humiliating". He decided to quit but changed his decision when he was offered a raise. He was given another raise when he asked to be transferred first to toys and to the appliances before he finally pulled out of the job over a ruffle with a company spy posing as a customer.^[6]

By this time, Grisham was halfway through the college. He decided to become a tax lawyer but was soon overcame by what he calls the "complexity and lunacy" of it. He decided to return to his hometown as a trial lawyer.^[7]

In 1983, he was elected into the Mississippi state legislature on a salary of $8,000. Each year after that Grisham would spend from January to March in the state capitol dreaming of a big case.^[8]

In Grisham's own words, the big case came in 1984. It wasn't his case. He was loitering around in the court when he overheard a young woman telling the jury what had happened to her. Her story intrigued Grisham and he began watching the trial. He saw how the members of the jury cried as she told them how she was raped and brutally beaten. It was then, Grisham writes in The New York Times, that a story was born. It took him three years to write the book but it didn't sell and he continued with his day job as a lawyer. He continued to write. It eventually paid off and he was able to adopt writing as his full time profession.^[9]

Political life

In 1983, Grisham was elected as a Democrat to the Mississippi House of Representatives, where he served until 1990. During his time as a legislator, he continued his private law practice in Southaven. He has donated over $100,000 to Democratic Party candidates. In September, 2007, Grisham appeared with Hillary Rodham Clinton, his stated choice for U.S. President in 2008, and former Virginia Governor Mark Warner, whom Grisham supported for the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Republican John Warner (no relation). Grisham had considered challenging former GOP U.S. Senator George Allen, Jr. in the 2006 Virginia Senatorial Election.

Writing career

In 1984, at the DeSoto County courthouse in Hernando, Grisham witnessed the harrowing testimony of a 12-year-old rape victim.^[10] He was moved to begin his first novel, which "explored what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants."^[10] He "spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987. Initially rejected by many publishers, the manuscript was eventually bought by Wynwood Press, which gave it a modest 5,000-copy printing and published it in June 1989."^[10]

The day after Grisham completed A Time to Kill, he began work on another novel, the story of a young attorney "lured to an apparently perfect law firm that was not what it appeared."^[10] That second book, The Firm, became the 7th bestselling novel of 1991.^[11] Grisham has produced at least one work a year, nearly all of which became very popular bestsellers. His novels were the number-one bestsellers in seven years: 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2005.

Beginning with A Painted House in 2001, the author broadened his focus from law to the more general rural South. He also continued to write legal thrillers.

Publishers Weekly declared Grisham, "the bestselling novelist of the 90s," with total sales of 60,742,289 copies. He is one of a few authors to sell two million copies on a first printing; others include Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling.^[12] Grisham's 1992 novel The Pelican Brief sold 11,232,480 copies in the United States alone.

Return to law practice

Grisham returned briefly to practice law in 1996 after a five-year hiatus. He "was honoring a commitment he made before he had retired from the law... representing the family of a railroad brakeman killed when he was pinned between two cars... Grisham successfully argued his clients' case, earning them a jury award of $683,500."^[10]

He continues to hold his seat on the Board of Directors for the Innocence Project, an organization dedicated to exonerating those who have been wrongfully convicted. The founders initiated the project after studies showed an extremely high rate of misidentification by eyewitnesses to crimes. Advances in the reliability and acceptance of DNA testing in trials have aided the work of the Innocence Project.^[13]

Named in libel suit

On September 28, 2007, Grisham was named in a civil suit in a US District Court, claiming Grisham libeled former Pontotoc County, Oklahoma District Attorney Bill Peterson, former Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation agent Gary Rogers, and criminalist Melvin Hett. The suit claimed that Grisham and two other authors critical of Peterson and his prosecution of murder cases conspired to commit libel and generate publicity for themselves by placing the plaintiffs in a false light and intentionally inflicting emotional distress.^[14] Grisham was named as a result of his non-fiction book, The Innocent Man: this revealed the faults in the investigation and trial of defendants in the murder of a cocktail waitress in Ada, Oklahoma, and the exoneration by DNA evidence more than 12 years later of wrongfully convicted defendants Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz.^[15] The judge dismissed the libel case on September 18, 2008, saying, "The wrongful convictions of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz must be discussed openly and with great vigor."^[14]

John Grisham Room

The Mississippi State University Libraries, Manuscript Division, maintains the John Grisham Room, an archive containing materials generated during the author's tenure as Mississippi State Representative and relating to his writings.^[16]

Grisham's lifelong passion for baseball is expressed in his novel A Painted House and in his support of Little League activities in both Oxford, Mississippi, and Charlottesville, Virginia. He wrote the original screenplay for and produced the baseball movie Mickey, starring Harry Connick, Jr.. The movie was released on DVD in April 2004.^[17] He remains a fan of Mississippi State University's baseball team and wrote about his ties to the university and the Left Field Lounge in the introduction for the book Dudy Noble Field: A Celebration of MSU Baseball.

Grisham is well known within the literary community for his efforts to support the continuing literary tradition of his native South. He has endowed scholarships and writers' residencies in the University of Mississippi's English Department and Graduate Creative Writing Program. He was the founding publisher of the Oxford American, a magazine devoted to literary writing. The magazine is famous for its annual music issue, copies of which include a compilation CD featuring contemporary and classic Southern musicians in genres ranging from blues and gospel to country western and alternative rock.

In an October 2006 interview on the Charlie Rose Show, Grisham stated that he usually takes only six months to write a book and that his favorite author is John le Carré.

Family life

Grisham describes himself as a "moderate Baptist," and has performed mission service for his church in Brazil. This country was the setting for his novels: The Testament, which has a strong religious theme; and The Partner.

He lives with his wife Renée Jones and their two children Ty and Shea. The "family splits their time between their Victorian home on a farm" outside Oxford, Mississippi, "and a home near Charlottesville, Virginia."^[10] In 2008, he and his wife bought a condo in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.^[18]

Books

Legal fiction

Complete collection of 24 John Grisham novels

• A Time to Kill (1989)
• The Firm (1991)
• The Pelican Brief (1992)
• The Client (1993)
• The Chamber (1994)
• The Rainmaker (1995)
• The Runaway Jury (1996)
• The Partner (1997)
• The Street Lawyer (1998)
• The Testament (1999)
• The Brethren (2000)
• The Summons (2002)
• The King of Torts (2003)
• The Last Juror (2004)
• The Broker (2005)
• The Appeal (2008)
• The Associate (2009)
• Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer (2010)
• The Confession (October 26, 2010)
• Theodore Boone 2 (June 14, 2011)

Non-legal fiction

• A Painted House (2001)
• Skipping Christmas (2001)
• Bleachers (2003)
• Playing for Pizza (2007)
• Ford County (2009)

Non-fiction

• The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town (2006)

Film adaptations

• The Firm (1993)
• The Pelican Brief (1993)
• The Client (1994)
• A Time to Kill (1996)
• The Chamber (1996)
• The Rainmaker (1997)
• The Gingerbread Man (1998) Based on an unpublished short story
• A Painted House (2003)
• Runaway Jury (2003)
• Mickey (2004) (writer)
• Christmas with the Kranks (2004) Based on the novel 'Skipping Christmas'
• The Partner (2010)
• Playing for Pizza (2010)
• The Innocent Man (2011)
• The Associate (2012)
• The Testament (2012)

See also

• The Innocence Project
• List of bestselling novels in the United States

References

External links

• Official website
• Official UK website
• Fansite
• John Grisham at the Internet Movie Database
• InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse: John Grisham (TV Interview)
• John Grisham Biography
• Works by or about John Grisham in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Donald E. Wilkes, Jr. "Kafka (and Grisham) in Oklahoma", Flagpole Magazine, 7 Feb 2007, p. 9.