(born 1955), U.S. author. With an ear for dialogue and an ability to make legalese understandable to the ordinary reader, lawyer John Grisham became a best-selling writer of legal thrillers. His fast-moving, suspenseful novels often feature an underdog lawyer who must skillfully battle powerful oppressors to save lives. Grisham was born on Feb. 8, 1955, in Jonesboro, Ark. His family moved often throughout his youth because of his father's construction jobs, but they eventually settled in Southaven, Miss., in the late 1960s. Grisham earned a bachelor's degree in accounting from Mississippi State University in 1977 and a law degree from the University of Mississippi in 1981. He returned to Southaven to set up a practice, first concentrating on criminal law and then on civil cases. In 1983, he was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives as a Democrat and served until 1990. Grisham began writing his first novel after observing a rape trial involving a 10-year-old victim. Stirred by the intense emotions in the courtroom, he wondered what a jury would do if the girl's father killed the attacker. Although he was already devoting more than 70 hours a week to his practice, Grisham got up early each day for three years to write what became ‘A Time to Kill'. Some two dozen publishers rejected the book before Wynwood Press bought the manuscript for 15,000 dollars and printed 5,000 copies in 1989. A New York movie scout saw the manuscript for Grisham's next novel before it was sold, and Paramount studios bought the rights to it for 600,000 dollars. This brought attention from many large book publishers, and Grisham quit his practice after signing a contract with the publisher Doubleday. ‘The Firm' (1991) spent almost a year on the New York Times bestseller list and was translated into more than 25 languages. Tom Cruise starred in the movie version, which was one of the top-grossing films of 1993. Grisham solidified his reputation as one of the most popular writers of the 1990s with ‘The Pelican Brief' (1992), ‘The Client' (1993), ‘The Chamber' (1994), ‘The Rainmaker' (1995), ‘The Runaway Jury' (1996), and ‘The Partner' (1997). The reissue of ‘A Time to Kill' also did well. Film rights to Grisham's novels commanded millions of dollars. Susan Sarandon earned an Academy award nomination for her role in ‘The Client' (1994). Other well-known performers who appeared in adaptations of Grisham's works included Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington in ‘The Pelican Brief' (1993), Sandra Bullock and Samuel L. Jackson in ‘A Time to Kill' (1996), and Gene Hackman in ‘The Chamber' (1996). |