John Grisham

**John Ray Grisham Jr.** (born February 8, 1955) is an American politician, lawyer, and writer.

## Biography and career

He was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas. His father worked as a construction worker and a cotton farmer. After moving often, the family settled in 1967 in the town of Southaven in De Soto County, Mississippi, and he graduated from Southaven High School. Young Grisham loved to read. In 1977, Grisham received a degree from Mississippi State University. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. After leaving law school, he entered a small-town general law practice for nearly 10 years in Southaven, MS where he paid a lot of attention on criminal law and civil law.

In 1983, he was elected as a Democrat to the Mississippi House of Representatives, where he served until 1990.  During this time, he continued his private law practice in Southaven.

In 1984 at the De Soto County courthouse in Hernando, Grisham witnessed the testimony of a 12-year-old girl who was raped. In his spare time, Grisham began work on his first novel, which explored what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her attackers. He spent three years on _A Time to Kill_ and finished it in 1987. The book was bought by Wynwood Press, which published it in June 1988.

The day after Grisham finished _A Time to Kill_, he began work on another novel, the story of a young attorney lured to what seemed to be a perfect law firm. That second book, _The Firm_, became the bestselling novel of 1991. Grisham then went on to write at least one work a year, most of them popular bestsellers.

Grisham has been declared  "the bestselling novelist of the 90s," selling a total of 60,742,288 copies. Grisham's 1992 novel _The Pelican Brief_ sold 11,232,480 books in the United States alone, making it the bestselling novel of the decade and the only novel to sell ten million books or more during a period of 10 years.

### Fiction

- _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)

### Non-fiction

- _The Innocent Man_ (2006)

## Other websites

- Official website
- John Grisham Quotes

## Infobox (officeholder)

- **embed**: yes
- **state house**: Mississippi
- **district**: 7th
- **term start**: 1984
- **term end**: 1990
- **predecessor**: Don Chambliss
- **successor**: Greg Davis (Mississippi politician), Greg Davis
- **party**: Democratic Party (United States), Democratic


## Infobox (writer)

- **name**: John Grisham
- **image**: Grisham John by C Harrison (cropped).jpg
- **caption**: John Grisham in 2016
- **birth name**: John Ray Grisham Jr.
- **birth place**: Jonesboro, Arkansas, U.S.
- **education**: Mississippi State University (Bachelor of Science, BS)
University of Mississippi School of Law, University of Mississippi (Juris Doctor, JD)
- **period**: 1989–present
- **genres**: Legal thriller
Crime fiction
Southern Gothic
Baseball
American football, Football
Basketball
- **children**: 2