John Grisham
John Grisham is a prominent American novelist known for his fast-paced legal thrillers. Born in the South, Grisham's upbringing in a family of readers and storytellers influenced his writing journey. After earning a degree in accounting and a law degree from the University of Mississippi, he practiced law and served in the Mississippi House of Representatives. His writing career began with "A Time to Kill" (1989), which, despite initial struggles, laid the groundwork for his future success. Grisham's subsequent novels, starting with "The Firm" (1991), established a recognizable pattern featuring protagonists facing formidable adversaries, often navigating themes of justice and morality.
Throughout his career, Grisham has tackled various social issues in works like "The Street Lawyer" and "The Testament," while also exploring more personal narratives in his coming-of-age story "A Painted House." In addition to his fiction, he has written nonfiction and a young adult series. Grisham's prolific output has led to the publication of nearly one novel each year since 1991, with many adapted into successful films. Balancing his writing career and personal interests, Grisham is also actively involved in youth baseball initiatives and has a family that includes his wife, Renee, and their two children.
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John Grisham
Author
- Born: February 8, 1955
- Place of Birth: Jonesboro, Arkansas
AMERICAN NOVELIST
Biography
John Grisham (GRIHSH-uhm), a so-called blockbuster novelist and himself a lawyer, writes fast-paced thrillers based in the legal profession. Most of his works have become enormously successful as long-term bestsellers and popular films.
Grisham was born in the South, where, because his father worked for a construction company, the family moved frequently to locations in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. His family, he has said, was made up of readers and storytellers, and he attributes his writing ability to both those qualities.
After earning a degree in accounting at Mississippi State University, Grisham attended the University of Mississippi School of Law and received his law degree in 1981. For the next ten years, he practiced law in Southaven, Mississippi, just south of Memphis, Tennessee. From 1984 to 1990, he also served in the Mississippi House of Representatives.
Grisham’s legal career was successful, if unspectacular. Still, he became increasingly cynical about the profession and, finding that he was more interested in literature than legal cases, decided to write a novel. He wrote A Time to Kill (1989) in longhand over three years by rising every morning at 5 am. The book was not an instant success (it originally sold only about five thousand copies), but Grisham believes it may be his best book. The plot, which concerns the efforts of a small-town lawyer to defend a Black Vietnam veteran accused of killing two men who had raped his ten-year-old daughter, shows certain organizational flaws but does stake out territory with which the author is entirely familiar.
Grisham began his second novel, The Firm (1991), as a purely commercial venture, and here he first started using the pattern (some have called it the “formula”) that has led to his extraordinary publishing success. The plot of this book—a vulnerable protagonist up against a hideous conspiracy of some sort—is repeated with intriguing variations in most of Grisham’s subsequent novels. According to Grisham, he wrote his third and fourth books, The Pelican Brief (1992) and The Client (1993), to convince his wife Renée that he could construct strong female protagonists. Grisham’s protagonists are usually either novices in the legal profession or idealists struggling against the system. Either way, they tend to confront—and win against—powers such as the Mafia, the US government, and giant insurance companies. He has said that his fascination is with ordinary people suddenly thrown into life-threatening circumstances. Some critics find fault with plots built upon implausible situations, but others counter that this is part of the definition of popular fiction.
One of Grisham’s most intriguing—and in some ways one of his most flawed—novels is The Chamber (1994). The book contains editing lapses and incidents of unconscious racism but also presents a compelling argument against the death penalty. While problematic, it is remarkable in its presentation of the gritty reality of death row.
Although Grisham continues to use the legal world as the basis of most of his work and the plots remain fast-paced, starting with The Chamber, he began to include some social commentary in his stories, and his plots become more intricate. He deals with issues of homelessness in The Street Lawyer (1998). He calls attention to the destruction of the Brazilian rainforest and its Indigenous inhabitants in The Testament (1999). He leaves the courtroom in Skipping Christmas (2001), and the somewhat autobiographical A Painted House (2001) is a coming-of-age story. Although his fiction has become more serious and less predictable, it is no less compelling and readable.
Throughout the late 2010s into the mid-2020s, Grisham contributed to many of his book series, including the Jake Brigance, The Whistler, the Camino Island, and his Mitch McDeere series. His stand-alone novels from this time include The Racketeer (2012), Gray Mountain (2014), The Rooster Bar (2017), The Reckoning (2018), The Guardians (2019), Sooley (2021), and The Boys from Biloxi (2022). In 2016, he released a short, free book called The Tumor that explores the medical benefits of focused ultrasound technology. Grisham is also the author of the young adult Theodore Boone series. Grisham has also published works of nonfiction, including Don't Quit Your Day Job: Acclaimed Authors and the Day Jobs They Quit (2010) and Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions (2024), cowritten with Jim McCloskey.
Grisham established himself as a highly prolific writer after publishing The Firm in 1991. He has consistently published almost one novel each year since that time. His writing has built a writing brand that has sold hundreds of millions of copies of his works in myriad languages. His books have been made into eleven feature films. Baseball is a big interest of Grisham's. He has financed the building of multiple Little League fields and has even served as a Little League commissioner.
Grisham married Renee Jones in 1981. They have two grown children: Ty and Shea.
Bibliography
Anderson, Patrick. The Triumph of the Thriller: How Cops, Crooks, and Cannibals Captured Popular Fiction. New York: Random House, 2007.
Bearden, Michelle. “John Grisham: In Six Years He’s Gone from Rejection Slips to Mega-Sales.” Publishers Weekly, vol. 240, Feb. 1993, pp. 70-71.
Best, Nancy, editor. Readings on John Grisham. San Diego: Greenhaven, 2003.
Cauthen, Cramer R., and Donald G. Alpin III. “The Gift Refused: The Southern Lawyer in To Kill a Mockingbird, The Client, and Cape Fear.” Studies in Popular Culture, vol. 19, no. 2, Oct. 1996, pp. 257-275.
Duffy, Martha. “Grisham’s Law.” Time, vol. 145, no. 19, 8 May 1995, pp. 87-88.
Goodman, Walter. “Legal Thrillers Obey Laws of Commerce.” The New York Times, 29 Feb. 2000, Late Edition, p. E1.
Grossman, Lev. “Grisham’s New Pitch.” Time, 16 Oct. 2006, p. 68.
Harris, June. “John Grisham.” In Contemporary Novelists, edited by Susan Brown. Detroit: St. James, 1996.
Hubbard, Kim, and David Hutchings. “Tales Out of Court.” People, 16 Mar. 1992, pp. 43-44.
Marchese, David, and Mamadi Doumbouya. “John Grisham Is Still Battling His Southern Demons.” The New York Times, 21 June 2022, www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/06/21/magazine/john-grisham-interview.html. Accessed 23 July 2024.
Mote, Dave. “John Grisham.” In Contemporary Popular Writers, edited by Mote. Detroit: St. James Press, 1997.
Norton, Will, Jr. “Why John Grisham Teaches Sunday School.” Christianity Today, vol. 38, no. 11, 3 Oct. 1994, pp. 14-15.
O'Keefe, Brian. “John Grisham on Writing 48 Books, 'The Boys From Biloxi,' 'The Firm,' and More.” Esquire, 7 Nov. 2022, www.esquire.com/entertainment/books/a41456526/john-grisham-what-ive-learned. Accessed 23 July 2024.
Pringle, Mary Beth. John Grisham: A Critical Companion. Westport: Praeger, 1997.
Pringle, Mary Beth. Revisiting John Grisham: A Critical Companion. Westport: Greenwood, 2007.
Wroe, Nicholas. "A Life in Writing: John Grisham." The Guardian, 25 Nov. 2011, https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2011/nov/25/john-grisham-life-in-writing. Accessed 23 July 2024.
Zaleski, Jeff. “The Grisham Business.” Publishers Weekly, vol. 245, no. 3, 19 Jan. 1998, pp. 248-249.
Zorthian, Julia. “John Grisham on New Book 'The Exchange'.” Time, 2 Oct. 2023, time.com/6317634/john-grisham-the-exchange-book-interview. Accessed 23 July 2024.