John Grisham: Internet Book Database

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John Grisham

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John Grisham (born February 8, 1955) is a former politician, retired attorney, American novelist and author best known for his works of modern legal drama.

The second eldest of four siblings, he was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to Southern Baptist parents of modest means. His father worked as a construction worker and a cotton farmer. After moving frequently, the family settled in 1967 in the town of Southaven in De Soto County, Mississippi, and he graduated from Southaven High School. Encouraged by his mother, young Grisham was an avid reader, especially influenced by the work of John Steinbeck whose clarity he admired. In 1977, Grisham received a B.Sc. degree in accounting from Mississippi State University. While studying at MSU, the author began keeping a journal, a practice that would later assist in his creative endeavors. After earning his J.D. degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981, he practiced small-town general law for nearly a decade in Southaven, where he became bored with criminal law and successful at civil law.

In 1983, he was elected as a Democrat to the Mississippi House of Representatives, where he served until 1990.

In 1984 at the De Soto County courthouse in Hernando, Grisham witnessed the harrowing testimony of a 12-year-old rape victim. In his spare time and as a hobby, Grisham began work on his first novel, which explored what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants. He spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987. Initially rejected by many publishers, the manuscript eventually was bought by Wynwood Press, which gave it a modest 5,000-copy printing and published it in June 1988.

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. That second book, The Firm, became the bestselling novel of 1991. Grisham then went on to produce at least one work a year, most of them widely popular bestsellers. Beginning with A Painted House in 2001, the author broadened his focus from law to the more general rural south, all the while continuing to pen his legal thrillers.

Publishers Weekly declared Grisham "the bestselling novelist of the 90s." During the 90s, he sold a total of 60,742,288 copies. He is also one of only two authors to sell two million copies on a first printing. His 1992 novel The Pelican Brief sold 11,232,480 copies in the United States alone, making it the bestselling novel of the decade and the only novel to sell ten million copies or more during the decade.

Grisham returned briefly to the courtroom in 1996 after a five-year hiatus. He was honoring a commitment he made before he retired from law; he represented 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 -- the biggest verdict of his career.

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

Grisham's lifelong passion for baseball is evident 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. He has also performed mission service for his church, notably in Brazil. Grisham describes himself as a "moderate Baptist." He lives with his wife, Renee, (n�e Jones) and their two children, Ty and Shea. The family splits their time between their Victorian home on a farm outside Oxford and a plantation near Charlottesville.

Books by John Grisham

Non-Series Books

	Cover	Title - Desc	Year	Coauthors	Fav	Own	Want
		The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction, an exploration of small town justice gone terribly awry, is his most extraordinary legal thriller yet.In the major league draft of 1971, the first player cho...	2006
		The Broker In his final hours in the Oval Office, the outgoing President grants a controversial last-minute pardon to Joel Backman, a notorious Washington power broker who has spent the last six years hidden awa...	2005
		The Last Juror 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 ...	2004
		Bleachers High school all-American Neely Crenshaw was probably the best quarterback ever to play for the legendary Messina Spartans. Fifteen years have gone by since those glory days, and Neely has come home to...	2003
		King of Torts The office of the public defender is not known as a training ground for bright young litigators. Clay Carter has been there too long and, like most of his colleagues, dreams of a better job in a real...	2003
		The Summons Once Judge Atlee was a powerful figure in Clanton, Mississippi--a pillar of the community who towered over local law and politics for forty years. Now the judge is a shadow of his former self, a sic...	2002
		A Painted House 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 ...	2001
		Skipping Christmas Imagine a year without Christmas. No crowded malls, no corny office parties, no fruitcakes, no unwanted presents. That’s just what Luther and Nora Krank have in mind when they decide that, just thi...	2001
		The Brethren They call themselves the Brethren: three disgraced former judges doing time in a Florida federal prison. One was sent up for tax evasion. Another, for skimming bingo profits. And the third, for a care...	2000
		The Testament Heart of darkness...In a plush Virginia office, a rich, angry old man is furiously rewriting his will. With his death just hours away, Troy Phelan wants to send a message to his children, his ex-wives...	1999
		The Street Lawyer He gave up the money. He gave up the power. Now all he has left is the law.Michael Brock is billing the hours, making the money, rushing relentlessly to the top of Drake & Sweeney, a giant D.C. ...	1998
		The Partner They hired him. They trusted him. Now they don't want justice--they want revenge....For four years, Patrick had often wondered how it would feel if they caught him.Now he was terror-stricken. �...	1997
		The Runaway Jury He has waited for this moment.He has planned his every move.He has made it onto the jury in the most explosive trial of the century.Now the verdict belongs to him. . . .They are at the center of a mul...	1996
		The Rainmaker It's summer in Memphis. The sweat is sticking to Rudy Baylor's shirt and creditors are nipping at his heels. Once he had aspirations of breezing through law school and punching his ticket to the...	1995
		The Chamber In the corridors of Chicago's top law firm: Twenty-six-year-old Adam Hall stands on the brink of a brilliant legal career. Now he is risking it all for a death-row killer and an impossible case....	1994
		The Client In a weedy lot on the outskirts of memphis, two boys watch a shiny Lincoln pull upt ot the curb... Eleven-year-old Mark Sway and his younger brother were sharing a forbidden cigarrette when a...	1993
		Pelican Brief In suburban Georgetown a killer's Reeboks whisper on the front floor of a posh home... In a seedy D.C. porno house a patron is swiftly garroted to death... The next day America learns that...	1992
		The Pelican Brief In suburban Georgetown a killer's Reeboks whisper on the front floor of a posh home... In a seedy D.C. porno house a patron is swiftly garroted to death... The next day America learns that two o...	1992
		The Firm 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 h...	1991
		A Time To Kill In this searing courtroom drama, best-selling author John Grisham probes the savage depths of racial violence... as he delivers a compelling tale of uncertain justice in a small southern t...	1989
		Appeal
		Associate
		Der Gefangene
		La Apelacion
		Playing For Pizza: A Novel Rick Dockery was the third-string quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. In the AFC Championship game against Denver, to the surprise and dismay of virtually everyone, Rick actually got into the game. ...
		Sea Power A spectacular arrangement of photographs highlights the 26 classes plus 8 other types of vessels represented here, with complete specifications and histories....
		The Appeal Politics has always been a dirty game.Now justice is, too.In a crowded courtroom in Mississippi, a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical company accused of dumping toxic waste into a smal...
		Tiempo de Matar John Grisham has become, in less than three years, America's most popular author. While The Firm first put him on bestseller lists across the country, and The Pelican Brief and The Client confirmed hi...