**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.

Books by John Grisham
---------------------

### 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
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* Official website
* John Grisham on IMDb

| * v
* t
* e
Works by John Grisham |
| --- |
| Novels: | 
*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 Gingerbread Man (Unpublished)* (1998) • 
*The Street Lawyer* (1998) • 
*The Testament* (1999) • 
*The Brethren* (2000) • 
*A Painted House* (2001) • 
*Skipping Christmas* (2001) • 
*The Summons* (2002) • 
*The King of Torts* (2003) • 
*Bleachers* (2003) • 
*Mickey (screenplay)* (2004) • 
*The Last Juror* (2004) • 
*The Broker* (2005) • 
*Playing for Pizza* (2007) • 
*The Appeal* (2008) • 
*The Associate* (2009) 
 |
| Non-fiction: | 
*The Innocent Man* (2006)
 |