John Grisham's Biography

            John Grisham was born on February 8th, 1955, in Jonesboro, Arkansas. His father was a construction worker and his       mother was a homemaker.

            John often dreamed as a child of becoming a pro baseball player. When he realized that he wasn't as good at the sport       as he thought he was, he switched over to the Mississippi State University. He graduated from Ole Miss's law school in       1981. Specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation for a decade in Southaven. He was elected into the       House of Representatives in 1983 and stayed there until 1990.

            The idea for John's first novel, A Time to Kill, came one day while he was waiting in the courthouse. He overheard the       testimony of a twelve-year-old rape victim and thought about what might have happened if the girl's father had murdered       her assailants. He got up at 5 every morning and got in a couple hours of writing before work. The book took three years       to finish the book; it was done in 1987. It was rejected by many publishers, but Wynwood Publishers accepted it. They       printed off 5,000 copies and it was published in 1988.

            John had already started his next book as his first was done. This novel was a story about a hot shot young attorney       who was lured into a "Perfect" firm that was not what it appeared to be. He sold the rights to his book, The Firm, to       Paramount Pictures for $600,000. This made John a "hot" author among publishers, and Doubleday bought the book       rights. The Firm spent 47 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller list and became the bestselling novel of '91.

            The Pelican Brief and The Client were both very successful and helped John's reputation. A Time to Killwas then       republished in hardcover by Doubleday and in paperback by Dell. This time it was published, it was a bestseller. Since the       first publishing of A Time to Kill, John has written one novel a year. All of his books have been bestsellers, which has       made Publishers Weekly to say that he is "the bestselling novelist in the '90's", said in a January 1998 profile. John's       books have been translated into 29 languages and there are currently over 60 million of his books in circulation. Seven of       his books- The Firm, The Pelican Brief, The Client, A Time to Kill, The Rainmaker, The Chamber, and A Painted House-       and one original screenplay, The Gingerbread Man,have been turned into movies.

            John and his wife, Renee, live with their two children Ty and Shea. They split their time up between their Mississippi       house and farm and a Charlotteville, Virginia, plantation. When John isn't writing, John devotes his time to charitable       causes. He is also the Little League commissioner of his local area. He built six fields on his property, which are the home       to 26 Little League teams and over 350 players.