James Fenimore - John Grisham: A Biography

John Grisham is one of the most successful American authors of our time. He has become world-famous for his extensive list of fictional legal thrillers that keep readers on the edge of their seats and always wanting more. He is one of only three authors (along with Tom Clancy and J.K. Rowling) to sell over two million copies on a first printing. His very first bestseller The Firm , published in 1991, eventually sold an impressive seven million copies . Only two short years after the book's release (but before it was officially published), the rights to the screenplay were sold and The Firm hit the box office. The film and book were wildly successful, with the book holding a place on The New York Times bestseller list for 47 consecutive weeks and the film bringing in over $270 million. As if the film and book were not successful enough, a Canadian TV series has been created based on an adaptation of the story and began airing in 2012.

Grisham has written over 28 fiction titles, eight of which have been brought to the silver screen. All of them have been successful. He has also written several short stories and non-fiction books. His books have been translated in over 29 languages, bringing him international recognition as the master of law novels.

People around the world enjoy reading Grisham's novels because they are enticing, engaging, and offer a degree of realism that gives the reader an insight into the minds of each character involved in the case. After all, most of his fictional writings are based on events that actually happened. Grisham says that writing legal thrillers is about making it fun for the reader. As he says, "nobody wants to read about the honest lawyer down the street who does real estate loans and wills". By creating "slimy" lawyer characters that are rough around the edges, the dynamic behavior of the characters is engaging yet remains realistic .

However, with such massively successful book titles, this author has to have something else going for him other than good writing. According to People Magazine , Some say it's because of his gorgeous looks that female readers pick up his novels . But once they do, they are hooked on what's really beautiful; the way Grisham writes. In reality, it's Grisham's realistic approach to writing legal fiction that has so many dedicated readers turning pages.

Unlike many fiction authors, Grisham actually experienced the realm of law first hand. Before John Grisham was synonymous with legal thrillers, he was a lawyer. While many lawyers have attemped writing legal fiction and non-fiction books, there is something special about Grisham that gives him the edge on bringing the legal experience to an audience.

Born into a small farming family in Jonesboro, Arkansas, young Grisham originally had no intentions of being a lawyer. On the contrary, he loved baseball and aspired to be a professional player one day. Although he kept dreaming of his future in the game throughout his teenage years, his mother constantly urged him to read books and prepare for college, despite the fact that neither Grisham's mother or father had enrolled in higher education. His family moved frequently around the Southern United States in the author's early years and his family eventually settled in Southaven, Mississippi. Grisham took several jobs as a boy, the first of which was at a nursery where he watered rose bushes for a wage of $1.00 per hour. He was quickly promoted to a job on a fence crew, for which he received $1.50 per hour and laid miles of chain-link fence.

Even at a young age, the young Grisham knew that the position had no future whatsoever, and found work instead as a plumbing contractor. He found plumbing to be miserable work and also recognized it as a job with no potential. Grisham worked several odd jobs throughout his later teenage years, mostly following his father's footsteps as a construction worker. One day while working on a road building project, he had an experience that inspired him to attend college. A fight broke out one evening among the crew, causing him to flee for his life. At this point he realized that he was " not cut out for construction " and decided that going to college would serve him better in the long run.

Grisham also gave up on his dream to become a baseball player. He enrolled in school, searching far and wide for a subject that interested him. He transferred schools three times and eventually settled on accounting. Attending Northwest Mississippi Community College, Delta State University (in Ohio), and eventually the University of Mississippi, he earned his degree in 1977.

Shortly thereafter, he enrolled in law school to become a tax accountant, but once he began to study, he became interested instead in criminal law cases. He found the work of tax accounting laborious and boring, and quickly returned to his hometown of Southaven to start a criminal law practice once he had completed his degree in criminal law. During law school he worked as a clerk in a department store; first in the men's underwear section, which he found degrading, and later on in the toy section. He eventually ended up working in the appliances department. Once admitted to the state bar of Mississippi in 1981, Grisham began to practice criminal law. In 1984 he was elected as a state representative and was required to sit in on trials as a public service. It was at this time that John Grisham's life moved him closer to the man we know today.

While attending the dramatic trial of a 12-year-old girl who had been violently raped and beaten, Grisham had his first powerful inspiration. He was profoundly affected by the tears of the jurors as they considered the evidence regarding the harsh violation of this poor young girl, and he wondered if he could convey that sorrow in writing.

With this, Grisham decided to write his first fictional novel. It would tell the story of what would have happened had the girl's father murdered her assailants . Only three years later, the book was complete and A Time To Kill was printed. At first, the book was not well received by the publishing community. In total, 28 publishers refused to print the book, but the author persisted. He eventually found a small-time operation called Wynwood Press that agreed to print an initial 5,000 copies in 1989. The books were sold to booksellers directly by Grisham himself and eventually a few sales were made.

The author then began to write his second novel, The Firm , a novel about an eager young attorney lured into a secretive law firm. In fact, he began writing the book exactly one day after finishing A Time To Kill ! The rights to The Firm were purchased by Paramount Pictures for $600,000 and Grisham promptly stepped out of his professional law practice in 1990. The book itself became the best selling novel of 1991. It was not only Grisham's high-quality writing, but his constant perseverance that lead to the rapid success of The Firm . From this point on, Grisham's writing career took off, making him famous in only a few short years.

After publishing The Firm and selling its rights to a major motion picture studio, Grisham was well on his way to a successful career as a writer. In fact, the author seems to be something of a novel-writing machine. He publishes a new book each year and has done so each year since the writing of his first book, except for the year 1996. That year, Grisham returned very briefly to the courtroom to fight for the familial rights of a railroad worker who was killed on duty. The verdict of the case was in the family's favor and they were awarded nearly $700,000 for damages. This was the most successful case Grisham had ever taken, yet he promptly turned back to what he loved most and began writing again. In 1997 he wrote