John Ray Grisham Jr., American novelist, attorney, politician, and activist.
School period
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Southaven High School, 735 Rasco Road Southaven, Mississippi 38671, United States
From 1961 to 1973 John Ray Grisham studied at Southaven High School, Southaven, Mississippi.
College/University
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1977
Mississippi State University, Starkville, Mississippi, United States
Grisham received an undergraduate degree in accounting from Mississippi State University in 1977.
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the University of Mississippi, Oxford, Mississippi, United States
Grisham attended law school at the University of Mississippi, where he earned a law degree in 1981.
Career
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2007
Grisham with Hillary Clinton in 2007. Donald Trump would doubtless dismiss the writer as a central figure in America’s liberal elite.
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2009
John Grisham in conversation with Charlie Rose at the Barnes and Noble Union Square on January 27, 2009 - the release date for The Associate. Photo by Maryanne Ventrice. (Image is taken from the John Grisham`s facebook account).
Gallery of John Grisham
2009
John Grisham in conversation with Charlie Rose at the Barnes and Noble Union Square on January 27, 2009 - the release date for The Associate. Photo by Maryanne Ventrice. (Image is taken from the John Grisham`s facebook account).
Gallery of John Grisham
2009
John Grisham in conversation with Charlie Rose at the Barnes and Noble Union Square on January 27, 2009 - the release date for The Associate. Photo by Maryanne Ventrice. (Image is taken from the John Grisham`s facebook account).
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2010
John Grisham and Jon Stewart. (Image is taken from the John Grisham`s facebook account).
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2010
Condoleezza Rice, John Grisham and Mary Roach at the Author Breakfast, BEA Convention, May 27, 2010 (image is taken from the John Grisham`s facebook account).
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2014
In this May 22, 2011 file photo, author John Grisham speaks during the opening of the premier of the stage adaptation of “A Time To Kill” at Arena Stage theater in Washington. In an interview published Thursday Oct. 16, 2014, Grisham said that the United States is handing out unduly harsh prison sentences for child pornography offenses to men who probably just had too much to drink and “pushed the wrong buttons.” (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, file).
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2018
Lee Child and John Grisham in the Royal Hall in Harrogate, England, for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Festival last Friday. Photo by Charlotte Graham. (Image is taken from the John Grisham`s facebook account).
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2018
John Grisham with his "Team Grisham" at the presentation, 2018. (Image is taken from the John Grisham`s facebook account).
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John Grisham, photo by Charlotte Graham.
Gallery of John Grisham
John Ray Grisham Jr. (born February 8, 1955) is an American novelist, attorney, politician, and activist, best known for his popular legal thrillers. His books have been translated into 42 languages and published worldwide.
Gallery of John Grisham
John Ray Grisham Jr., American novelist, attorney.
Achievements
2007
London, England, United Kingdom
John Grisham is shown winning a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Galaxy British Book Awards in London on 3/28/07. Credit: Stephanie Methven / WENN.
Membership
Awards
Lifetime Achievement Award
Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement
In 1993, John Grisham was presented the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
John Grisham in conversation with Charlie Rose at the Barnes and Noble Union Square on January 27, 2009 - the release date for The Associate. Photo by Maryanne Ventrice. (Image is taken from the John Grisham`s facebook account).
John Grisham in conversation with Charlie Rose at the Barnes and Noble Union Square on January 27, 2009 - the release date for The Associate. Photo by Maryanne Ventrice. (Image is taken from the John Grisham`s facebook account).
John Grisham in conversation with Charlie Rose at the Barnes and Noble Union Square on January 27, 2009 - the release date for The Associate. Photo by Maryanne Ventrice. (Image is taken from the John Grisham`s facebook account).
Condoleezza Rice, John Grisham and Mary Roach at the Author Breakfast, BEA Convention, May 27, 2010 (image is taken from the John Grisham`s facebook account).
In this May 22, 2011 file photo, author John Grisham speaks during the opening of the premier of the stage adaptation of “A Time To Kill” at Arena Stage theater in Washington. In an interview published Thursday Oct. 16, 2014, Grisham said that the United States is handing out unduly harsh prison sentences for child pornography offenses to men who probably just had too much to drink and “pushed the wrong buttons.” (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, file).
Author John Grisham speaks to members of UNO’s writing workshop Thursday afternoon at the Strauss Performing Arts Center. Later he spoke at Baxter Arena, kicking off UNO’s Marion Marsh Brown Lecture Series.
Lee Child and John Grisham in the Royal Hall in Harrogate, England, for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Festival last Friday. Photo by Charlotte Graham. (Image is taken from the John Grisham`s facebook account).
John Grisham moderated Thursday’s discussion that featured UVA law professor Brandon Garrett and fellow authors Radley Balko, Tucker Carrington and Bill Sizemore. (Photo by Dan Addison, University Communications).
John Ray Grisham Jr. (born February 8, 1955) is an American novelist, attorney, politician, and activist, best known for his popular legal thrillers. His books have been translated into 42 languages and published worldwide.
Though his first book was not an immediate success, John Grisham's publisher encouraged him to write another. And with his second, The Firm, published in 1991, he hit pay dirt.
In 1993, John Grisham was presented the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.
Connections
Friend: Neal Kassell
2016
Neal Kassell, MD, Chairman of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation with John Grisham.
Wife: Renee Jones
Renee Grisham is involved in her community locally and globally. Support of women, education, and the environment are the bedrock for the philanthropic giving of her family’s foundation. These criteria lead the support of local communities in efforts to feed, house, educate, and provide healthcare, in addition to protecting the environment in places such as Virginia, Costa Rica, Haiti, and Peru. Appointed by Governor McAuliffe, Renee serves on the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities as well as the UNC Board of Visitors, the UNC Press Advancement Council, and Carolina Performing Arts. She is a graduate of the University of North Carolina.
(At the top of his class at Harvard Law, he had his choice...)
At the top of his class at Harvard Law, he had his choice of the best in America. He made a deadly mistake. When Mitch McDeere signed on with Bendini, Lambert & Locke of Memphis, he thought he and his beautiful wife, Abby, were on their way. The firm leased him a BMW, paid off his school loans, arranged a mortgage and hired him a decorator. Mitch McDeere should have remembered what his brother Ray doing fifteen years in a Tennessee jail already knew. You never get nothing for nothing. Now the FBI has the lowdown on Mitch's firm and needs his help. Mitch is caught between a rock and a hard place, with no choice if he wants to live.
(Every jury has a leader, and the verdict belongs to him....)
Every jury has a leader, and the verdict belongs to him. In Biloxi, Mississippi, a landmark tobacco trial with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake beginsroutinely, then swerves mysteriously off course. The jury is behaving strangely, and at least one juroris convinced he's being watched. Soon they have to be sequestered. Then a tip from an anonymousyoung woman suggests she is able to predict the jurors' increasingly odd behavior. Is the jury somehow being manipulated, or even controlled? If so, by whom? And, more important,why?
(Until that September of 1952, Luke Chandler had never kep...)
Until that September of 1952, Luke Chandler had never kept a secret or told a single lie. But in the long, hot summer of his seventh year, two groups of migrant workers and two very dangerous men came through the Arkansas Delta to work the Chandler cotton farm. And suddenly mysteries are flooding Luke’s world. A brutal murder leaves the town seething in gossip and suspicion. A beautiful young woman ignites forbidden passions. A fatherless baby is born and someone has begun furtively painting the bare clapboards of the Chandler farmhouse, slowly, painstakingly, bathing the run-down structure in gleaming white. And as young Luke watches the world around him, he unravels secrets that could shatter lives and change his family and his town forever.
(In 1970, one of Mississippi's more colorful weekly newspa...)
In 1970, one of Mississippi's more colorful weekly newspapers, The Ford County Times, went bankrupt. To the surprise and dismay of many, ownership was assumed by a 23 year-old college dropout, named Willie Traynor. The future of the paper looked grim until a young mother was brutally raped and murdered by a member of the notorious Padgitt family. Willie Traynor reported all the gruesome details, and his newspaper began to prosper. The murderer, Danny Padgitt, was tried before a packed courthouse in Clanton, Mississippi.
The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town
(In the town of Ada, Oklahoma, Ron Williamson was going to...)
In the town of Ada, Oklahoma, Ron Williamson was going to be the next Mickey Mantle. But on his way to the Big Leagues, Ron stumbled, his dreams broken by drinking, drugs, and women. Then, on a winter night in 1982, not far from Ron's home, a young cocktail waitress named Debra Sue Carter was savagely murdered. The investigation led nowhere.
(Because Troy Phelan’s new will names a sole surprise heir...)
Because Troy Phelan’s new will names a sole surprise heir to his eleven-billion-dollar fortune: a mysterious woman named Rachel Lane, a missionary living deep in the jungles of Brazil. Enter the lawyers. Nate O’Riley is fresh out of rehab, a disgraced corporate attorney handpicked for his last job: to find Rachel Lane at any cost. As Phelan’s family circles like vultures in D.C., Nate goes crashing through the Brazilian jungle, entering a world where money means nothing, where death is just one misstep away, and where a woman pursued by enemies and friends alike holds a stunning surprise of her own.
(Michael Brock is billing the hours, making the money, rus...)
Michael Brock is billing the hours, making the money, rushing relentlessly to the top of Drake & Sweeney, a giant D.C. law firm. One step away from partnership, Michael has it all. Then, in an instant, it all comes undone: A homeless man takes nine lawyers hostage in the firm’s plush offices. When it’s all over, the man’s blood is splattered on Michael’s face and suddenly Michael is willing to do the unthinkable. Rediscovering a conscience he lost long ago, Michael is leaving the big time for the streets where his attacker once lived and where society’s powerless need an advocate for justice. But there’s one break Michael can’t make from a secret that has floated up from the depths of Drake & Sweeney, from a confidential file that is now in Michael’s hands, and from a conspiracy that has already taken lives. Now Michael’s former partners are about to become his bitter enemies. Because to them, Michael Brock is the most dangerous man on the streets.
(An innocent man is about to be executed. Only a guilty ma...)
An innocent man is about to be executed. Only a guilty man can save him. For every innocent man sent to prison, there is a guilty one left on the outside. He doesn't understand how the police and prosecutors got the wrong man, and he certainly doesn't care. He just can't believe his good luck. Time passes and he realizes that the mistake will not be corrected: the authorities believe in their case and are determined to get a conviction. He may even watch the trial of the person wrongly accused of his crime. He is relieved when the verdict is guilty. He laughs when the police and prosecutors congratulate themselves. He is content to allow an innocent person to go to prison, to serve hard time, even to be executed.
(Ray Atlee is a professor of law at the University of Virg...)
Ray Atlee is a professor of law at the University of Virginia. He's forty-three, newly single, and still enduring the aftershocks of a surprise divorce. He has a younger brother, Forrest, who redefines the notion of a family's black sheep. And he has a father, a very sick old man who lives alone in the ancestral home in Clanton, Mississippi. He is known to all as Judge Atlee, a beloved and powerful official who has towered over local law and politics for forty years. No longer on the bench, the Judge has withdrawn to the Atlee mansion and become a recluse. With the end in sight, Judge Atlee issues a summons for both sons to return home to Clanton, to discuss the details of his estate.
(What no one knows is that the President issues the pardon...)
What no one knows is that the President issues the pardon only after receiving enormous pressure from the CIA. It seems that Backman, in his heyday, may have obtained secrets that compromise the world’s most sophisticated satellite surveillance system. Backman is quietly smuggled out of the country in a military cargo plane, given a new name, a new identity, and a new home in Italy. Eventually, after he has settled into his new life, the CIA will leak his whereabouts to the Israelis, the Russians, the Chinese, and the Saudis.
(Meeting daily in the prison law library, taking exercise ...)
Meeting daily in the prison law library, taking exercise walks in their boxer shorts, these judges-turned-felons can reminisce about old court cases, dispense a little jailhouse justice, and contemplate where their lives went wrong. Or they can use their time in prison to get very rich very fast. And so they sit, sprawled in the prison library, furiously writing letters, fine-tuning a wickedly brilliant extortion scam while events outside their prison walls begin to erupt. A bizarre presidential election is holding the nation in its grips, and a powerful government figure is pulling some very hidden strings.
(The partners at Finley & Figg often refer to themselves a...)
The partners at Finley & Figg often refer to themselves as a “boutique law firm.” Boutique, as in chic, selective, and prosperous. Oscar Finley and Wally Figg are none of these things. They are a two-bit operation of ambulance chasers who bicker like an old married couple. Until change comes their way - or, more accurately, stumbles in. After leaving a fast-track career and going on a serious bender, David Zinc is sober, unemployed, and desperate enough to take a job at Finley & Figg.
(The thrilling young mystery series from internationally b...)
The thrilling young mystery series from internationally bestselling author John Grisham! In the small city of Strattenburg, there are many lawyers, and though he’s only thirteen years old, Theo Boone thinks he’s one of them. Theo knows every judge, policeman, court clerk and a lot about the law. He dreams of being a great trial lawyer, of a life in the courtroom. But Theo finds himself in court much sooner than expected. Because he knows so much maybe too much he is suddenly dragged into the middle of a sensational murder trial. A cold-blooded killer is about to go free, and only Theo knows the truth. The stakes are high, but Theo won’t stop until justice is served.
(When we last saw Theo Boone, he ensured that justice was ...)
When we last saw Theo Boone, he ensured that justice was served by uncovering evidence that kept a guilty man off of the streets. Hot off this high-profile murder trial, thirteen-year-old Theo is still dispensing legal advice to friends and teachers. But just when it seems as if his life has calmed down and gone back to the status quo, a new legal mystery comes to town, and this time it's personal.
(The kid from Calico Rock, Arkansas, dazzles Chicago Cubs ...)
The kid from Calico Rock, Arkansas, dazzles Chicago Cubs fans as he hits home run after home run, politely tipping his hat to the crowd as he shatters all rookie records. Calico Joe quickly becomes the idol of every baseball fan in America, including Paul Tracey, the young son of a hard-partying and hard-throwing New York Mets pitcher. On the day that Warren Tracey finally faces Calico Joe, Paul is in the stands, rooting for his idol but also for his dad. Then Warren throws a fastball that will change their lives forever.
(Seth Hubbard is a wealthy man dying of lung cancer. He tr...)
Seth Hubbard is a wealthy man dying of lung cancer. He trusts no one. Before he hangs himself from a sycamore tree, Hubbard leaves a new, handwritten, will. It is an act that drags his adult children, his black maid, and Jake into a conflict as riveting and dramatic as the murder trial that made Brigance one of Ford County's most notorious citizens, just three years earlier. The second will raises far more questions than it answers. Why would Hubbard leave nearly all of his fortune to his maid? Had chemotherapy and painkillers affected his ability to think clearly? And what does it all have to do with a piece of land once known as Sycamore Row?
(In the history of the United States, only four active fed...)
In the history of the United States, only four active federal judges have been murdered. Judge Raymond Fawcett has just become number five. His body is found in his remote lakeside cabin. There is no sign of forced entry or struggle. Just two dead bodies: Judge Fawcett and his young secretary. And one large, state-of-the-art, extremely secure safe, opened and emptied. One man, a former attorney, knows who killed Judge Fawcett, and why. But that man, Malcolm Bannister, is currently residing in the Federal Prison Camp near Frostburg, Maryland. Though serving time, Malcolm has an ace up his sleeve. He has information the FBI would love to know. Malcolm would love to tell them. But everything has a price and the man known as the Racketeer wasn’t born yesterday.
(The year is 2008 and Samantha Kofer’s career at a huge Wa...)
The year is 2008 and Samantha Kofer’s career at a huge Wall Street law firm is on the fast track until the recession hits and she is downsized, furloughed, and escorted out of the building. Samantha, though, is offered an opportunity to work at a legal aid clinic for one year without pay, all for a slim chance of getting rehired.
(On the right side of the law - sort of - Sebastian Rudd i...)
On the right side of the law - sort of - Sebastian Rudd is not your typical street lawyer. His office is a customized bulletproof van, complete with Wi-Fi, a bar, a small fridge, and fine leather chairs. He has no firm, no partners, and only one employee: his heavily armed driver, who also so happens to be his bodyguard, law clerk, confidant, and golf caddie. Sebastian drinks small-batch bourbon and carries a gun. He defends people other lawyers won’t go near: a drug-addled, tattooed kid rumored to be in a satanic cult; a vicious crime lord on death row; a homeowner arrested for shooting at a SWAT team that mistakenly invaded his house. Why these clients?
(Then Patrick Lanigan stole ninety million dollars from hi...)
Then Patrick Lanigan stole ninety million dollars from his own firm and ran for his life. For four years, he evaded men who were rich and powerful, and who would stop at nothing to find him. Then, inevitably, on the edge of the Brazilian jungle, they finally tracked him down. Now Patrick is coming home. And in the Mississippi city where it all began, an extraordinary trial is about to begin. As prosecutors circle like sharks, as Patrick’s lawyer prepares his defense, as Patrick’s lover prays for his deliverance and his former partners wait for their revenge, another story is about to emerge. Because Patrick Lanigan, the most reviled white-collar criminal of his time, knows something that no one else in the world knows. He knows the truth.
(Lacy Stoltz is an investigator for the Florida Board on J...)
Lacy Stoltz is an investigator for the Florida Board on Judicial Conduct. It is her job to respond to complaints dealing with judicial misconduct. After nine years with the Board, she knows that most problems are caused by incompetence, not corruption. But a corruption case eventually crosses her desk. A previously disbarred lawyer is back in business, and he claims to know of a Florida judge who has stolen more money than all other crooked judges combined. And not just crooked judges in Florida.
(Grisham takes readers through a detailed account of Paul’...)
Grisham takes readers through a detailed account of Paul’s treatment and his family’s experience that doesn’t end as we would hope. Grisham then explores an alternate future, where Paul is diagnosed with the same brain tumor at the same age, but in the year 2025, when a treatment called focused ultrasound is able to extend his life expectancy. Focused ultrasound has the potential to treat not just brain tumors, but many other disorders, including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, hypertension, and prostate, breast and pancreatic cancer. For more information or to order a free hard copy of the book, you can visit The Focused Ultrasound Foundation’s website.
(Thirteen-year-old Theodore Boone knows every judge, polic...)
Thirteen-year-old Theodore Boone knows every judge, police officer, and court clerk in Strattenburg. He has even helped bring a fugitive to justice. But even a future star lawyer like Theo has to deal with statewide standardized testing. When an anonymous tip leads the school board to investigate a suspicious increase in scores at another local middle school, Theo finds himself thrust in the middle of a cheating scandal. With insider knowledge and his future on the line, Theo must follow his keen instincts to do what’s right in the newest case for clever kid lawyer Theo Boone.
(Bruce Cable owns a popular bookstore in the sleepy resort...)
Bruce Cable owns a popular bookstore in the sleepy resort town of Santa Rosa on Camino Island in Florida. He makes his real money, though, as a prominent dealer in rare books. Very few people know that he occasionally dabbles in unsavory ventures.
(Mark, Todd, and Zola came to law school to change the wor...)
Mark, Todd, and Zola came to law school to change the world, to make it a better place. But now, as third-year students, these close friends realize they have been duped. They all borrowed heavily to attend a third-tier for-profit law school so mediocre that its graduates rarely pass the bar exam, let alone get good jobs. And when they learn that their school is one of a chain owned by a shady New York hedge-fund operator who also happens to own a bank specializing in student loans, the three know they have been caught up in The Great Law School Scam.
(October 1946, Clanton, Mississippi Pete Banning was Clant...)
October 1946, Clanton, Mississippi Pete Banning was Clanton, Mississippi’s favorite son a decorated World War II hero, the patriarch of a prominent family, a farmer, father, neighbor, and a faithful member of the Methodist church. Then one cool October morning he rose early, drove into town, and committed a shocking crime.
(Theo has been worried about his good friend Woody Lambert...)
Theo has been worried about his good friend Woody Lambert. Woody is struggling at school and making bad choices. But when Woody is arrested an unwitting accomplice to armed robbery Theo knows he is innocent. Racing the clock while Woody sits in jail, Theo will do everything in his power to help his friend and save Woody from an unforgiving system where justice is not equal for all.
(In the small Florida town of Seabrook, a young lawyer nam...)
In the small Florida town of Seabrook, a young lawyer named Keith Russo was shot dead at his desk as he worked late one night. The killer left no clues. There were no witnesses, no one with a motive. But the police soon came to suspect Quincy Miller, a young black man who was once a client of Russo’s.
(Francis Ford Coppola directs and scripts an exciting, sta...)
Francis Ford Coppola directs and scripts an exciting, star-packed adaptation of John Grisham's novel about an idealistic young attorney who takes on the case of a lifetime.
John Ray Grisham is an American lawyer, politician, and brilliant writer of numerous novels. He is best known for his legal thrillers, the majority of which have been made into popular Hollywood movies, such as A Time to Kill, The Firm, The Pelican Brief, and The Client and others. The list of his bestsellers has numbered more than 60 million in print across the world, and have been translated into 31 languages.
Background
John Grisham was born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, the United States of America. He is the second born child of the five siblings in his family. Although they lacked formal education, his mother encouraged him to read and insisted that he prepare himself for college. John’s father, John Grisham Sr. worked as a construction worker and a cotton farmer; his mother, Wanda Skidmore Grisham was a homemaker.
John’s childhood ambition was to be a baseball player. When Grisham was four years old, the family began following his father’s construction jobs, eventually settling in 1967 in Southaven, Mississippi.
Education
John graduated from Southaven High School in 1973 and enrolled in Northwest Junior College, Senatobia, Mississippi. The next year he transferred to Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi, and tried out to play baseball there. Later, John and his friends left Delta State at the end of the semester and went to Mississippi State University in Starkville, Mississippi.
He had transferred from two colleges and he did not have very good grades. Almost immediately, he changed his major to economics. In his first economics class, he witnessed a class discussion of students and the instructor in which the students were articulate, prepared, and unafraid of confronting the professor. He wanted to be part of that. He wanted to grow up and learn. He discovered that he preferred accounting to economics. His grades were salvageable. With hard working, he thought he could succeed. He also had thoughts of attending law school. John Grisham graduated with a B.S. in accounting from Mississippi State University in 1977.
Grisham then studied tax law at the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. Discovering that he did not like that specialty, he changed to criminal law. He graduated in 1981 with a law degree.
After graduating from the University of Mississippi law school, he returned to Southaven and was admitted to the state bar in Mississippi in 1981 and practiced until 1990. He was elected as a Democrat in the Mississippi House of Representatives from January 1984 until September 1990. Grisham represented the seventh district, which included De Soto County. By his second term at the Mississippi state legislature, he was the vice-chairman of the Apportionment and Elections Committee and a member of several other committees.
While serving in the Mississippi House, he observed a trial in the De Soto County Courthouse that changed his life. He heard the testimony of a twelve-year-old rape victim. He began exploring what would have happened if the girl’s father had killed her assailants. With the trial for the storyline and Steinbeck’s clear, clean writing style as a model, Grisham wrote his first novel, A Time to Kill. Most of the writings he did before going to the office and during courtroom recesses. The book was rejected by 28 publishers before «Wynnewood Press», an unknown publisher, agreed to give it a modest 5,000-copy printing. It was published in June 1989.
Although «A Time to Kill» sold a disappointing 5,000 copies, Grisham had already begun work on a second novel «The Firm». At the same time, bored with the routine of the state capital and eager to spend more time with his family, he decided not to seek re-election to the state legislature. He closed his office in Southaven and moved his family to Oxford, Mississippi, hoping to concentrate on his writing.
Since 1988, Grisham has written one book per year. His breakaway success came with his second novel, «The Firm». In 1990, before the novel was published, Paramount Pictures purchased the film rights for $600,000. That same year, he resigned from the House of Representatives and bought a farm near Oxford, Mississippi.
Since then, Grisham has gone on to be recognized as one of the world's bestselling novelists. In addition to A Time to Kill and The Firm, his titles include The Pelican Brief, The Client, The Chamber, and The Rainmaker, each of which has been scripted into immensely successful film versions. His most recent novels are The Partner (1997), The Street Lawyer (1998), The Testament (1999), and The Brethren (2000).
In August 1994, he expanded his list of job titles to include publisher as well, when he rescued The Oxford American, a struggling magazine based in the town of its title, from financial destitution. In 2000, Grisham published A Painted House serially in the magazine. The novel, set in 1952 Arkansas, is, as Grisham readily admits, a departure from his usual style of novel. In a letter to readers, he writes, “A Painted House is not a legal thriller. In fact, there is not a single lawyer, dead or alive, in this story. Nor are there judges, trials, courtrooms, conspiracies or nagging social issues.” The novel was published as a single volume edition in 2001. Other departures from his legal thrillers include Skipping Christmas (2001), which was adapted into the motion picture Christmas with the Kranks (2004), and Bleachers (2004), a semi-autobiographical book about high school football.
In the spring of 2001, it was reported that Grisham had written the screenplay for the film Mickey, about the world of Little League baseball. Grisham also is serving as producer for the movie, which is being directed by Hugh Wilson and stars Harry Connick, Jr. Grisham continues to write legal thrillers, the most recent of which are The Summons (2002), The King of Torts (2003), The Last Juror (2004), and most recently, The Broker (2005).
He divides his time between a home in Charlottesville, Virginia, and Oxford, Mississippi.
John Grisham's first best-seller, ‘The Firm’, released in 1991 and sold over than seven million copies worldwide. It became the first best-seller of the year 1991 and is known as his most widely-recognized novel. The book was adapted for a feature film of the same title, starring Tom Cruise and Gene Hackman. It was also adapted for television in 2011. Many of his novels have been translated into 29 languages.
In 1993, his third novel, ‘The Pelican Brief’ became an international best-seller. A film adaptation of the same was released the same year starring Denzel Washington and Julia Roberts.
His fourth novel, ‘The Client’, which was published in 1993, earned him widespread acclaim. The novel became so successful that it was adapted for film the very next year, starring Susan Sarandon. The film also became a huge hit, which went on to spawn a television series that ran from 1995 to 1995.
Here is the list of awards and recognition that John Grisham has received, as follows: 1993 Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement, Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award in 2005, Galaxy British Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007, Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction in 2009, The inaugural Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction for The Confession in 2011, Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction for Sycamore Row in 2011, 2014 Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction for Sycamore Row.
(Francis Ford Coppola directs and scripts an exciting, sta...)
1997
Religion
Grisham grew up in a religious family, where his parents belonged to the Southern Baptist Church. He describes himself as a «moderate Baptist», and has performed mission service for his church, notably in Brazil. That country provides the setting for one of his novels «The Testament», which has a strong religious theme. He one stated: “I have some very deep religious convictions that I keep to myself, and when I see people using them for political gain it really irritates me.”
Politics
“I was encouraged because we’re mostly Democrats around here, and there was a good turnout. But things only really got exciting in the evening when it became clear that Obama was going to win.” Grisham doesn’t sound excited, though. He may be a lifelong Democrat and a generous party donor, but he was not Barack Obama’s biggest fan. Yet the writer was surprised by the racist reaction to Obama both in the run-up to his 2008 election and four years later. “There are people in the South who would never consider voting for a Mormon because they consider Mormons to be weird. They embraced Romney for one reason: because he was white. That said, there’s so much pride here that we have elected an African American and that he’s a good, smart guy.”
Views
Since Grisham joined the Board of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation, he developed the fictional characters and wrote their story in the book titled The Tumor. The Foundation worked with him to provide information about the technology and ensure that everything was accurate. His main goal was to catch interest in order to educate the public about a complex medical technology with many potential applications. By incorporating storytelling, Grisham was able to get readers attention and have them dive into the short book.
Quotations:
“I seriously doubt I would ever have written the first story had I not been a lawyer. I never dreamed of being a writer. I wrote only after witnessing a trial.”
“I’m not trying to write great literature. I’ll leave that to someone else, and I’m glad they do it because I like to read great literature. But I do what I do. It’s enough for me that when I write something like The Racketeer, about five million people all over the world will read it. When I see someone in an airport lounge or on the beach reading one of my books, it still makes me smile, 30 books on.”
"You want to read about somebody exceptional," he said. "You want to get the reader's attention. You want to tell a story that's never been told, and to do that, you have to jazz it up a bit. Baseball is a game of endless statistics, and it was great fun messing around with some of those numbers."
"When I see something I perceive to be wrong, then I want to shine a light,’ he says. ‘To wrap a story round an issue, that to me is a challenge but also a whole lot of fun."
"I don't think about cliches," he said, "I think about the story, I think about the characters. I want to tell the story, live the story. I'm not here to deliver messages or sermons or give morality tales, I'm here to tell stories."
In his New York Times list of writing tips, Grisham has one more nugget of advice about being consistent: "Write your one page each day at the same place and time. Early morning, lunch break, on the train, late at night - it doesn't matter. Find the extra hour, go to the same place, shut the door. No exceptions, no excuses."
“In the land of a million lawyers, there’s so many people who face eviction, disaster, loss of benefits, and more … because they don’t have lawyers. And if we can’t protect them, we, as a society, are all diminished.”
Membership
John Grisham is a member of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation that he joined in 2009 under the initiative of his friend Neal Kassell, Chairman of the Foundation.
Grisham is also a member of the board of directors of the Innocence Project, which campaigns to free and exonerate unjustly convicted people on the basis of DNA evidence.
Personality
Grisham has a lifelong passion for baseball demonstrated partly by 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 (2004), starring Harry Connick, Jr. 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.
He once stated in his interview in 2012 for the article "John Grisham Sets Law Aside In Baseball Novel 'Calico Joe": "I played baseball from the time that I can remember as a little boy, through little league, through high school," he said. "Like all the kids on my street, we were going to play for the Cardinals. We all dreamed of being big league players. Growing up in Arkansas and Mississippi, every small town, every porch, every car, every kitchen had a radio. If the Cardinals were playing, everybody knew the score. I can vividly recall playing Little League baseball [on] hot summer nights in Mississippi, and being able to hear three or four radios scattered around the bleachers. You would hear people start clapping or yelling or cheering, not for us on the field, but because the Cardinals had scored."
Physical Characteristics:
Height: 6'1" (185 cm)
Interests
Politicians
Hillary Rodham Clinton
Writers
“The Grapes of Wrath,” by John Steinbeck
Sport & Clubs
Baseball, the Mississippi State University’s baseball team
Connections
Grisham married Renee Jones in 1981, and the couple has two grown children together, Shea and Ty. The family spends their time in their home on a farm outside Oxford, Mississippi, and their other home near Charlottesville, Virginia.
Father:
John Grisham Sr.
Mother:
Wanda Skidmore Grisham
child:
Shea Grisham
child:
Ty Grisham
Friend:
Neal Kassell
Grisham's book, The Tumor, was based on a new technology known as focused ultrasound. In about 2009 Grisham's friend Neal Kassell started talking to him about the new technology that he felt could in the future revolutionize therapy. And seven years later Neal, and several other people that he knew, who were also involved with focused ultrasound, convinced Grisham to join the board of the Focused Ultrasound Foundation.
Wife:
Renee Jones
Appointed by Governor McAuliffe, Renee serves on the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities as well as the UNC Board of Visitors, the UNC Press Advancement Council, and Carolina Performing Arts.