Grisham, John (1955-…), is a popular American author known for his suspense novels with lawyer heroes. Grisham gained fame with his second novel, The Firm (1991). The story concerns an ethical lawyer who battles a dangerous conspiracy, at the risk of the lawyer’s life. Grisham dealt with the same theme in his next two novels, The Pelican Brief (1992) and The Client (1993). He followed these works with the best-selling legal thrillers The Chamber (1994), The Rainmaker (1995), The Runaway Jury (1996), The Partner (1997), The Street Lawyer (1998), and The Testament (1999). He continued to top best-seller lists with the thrillers The Summons (2002), The King of Torts (2003), The Last Juror (2004), The Broker (2004), The Appeal (2008), The Associate (2009), The Confession (2010), The Litigators (2011), The Racketeer (2012), Rogue Lawyer (2015), and The Guardians (2019). He wrote The Whistler (2016) and its sequel, The Judge’s List (2021). He also wrote The Boys from Biloxi (2022).
Grisham wrote A Painted House (2001), a partly autobiographical suspense novel set in a Southern town during the 1950’s. Skipping Christmas (2001) is a comic and sentimental novel about celebrating Christmas. Bleachers (2003) is a short novel about the relationship between a dying high school football coach and one of his former star players. Playing for Pizza (2007) is a humorous novel about the experiences of an American professional football player playing in Italy. Calico Joe (2012) mixes a troubled father-son relationship with major league baseball. Sooley (2021) is about a young man from war-torn South Sudan who travels to the United States to play basketball. Sparring Partners (2022) is a collection of three novellas.
Ford County (2009) is a collection of seven short stories set in Ford County, Mississippi, the scene of Grisham’s first novel. Grisham wrote the nonfiction work The Innocent Man (2006) about an innocent man convicted of murder, sentenced to death, but eventually freed. He also began a series of suspense novels for young readers about a boy who wants to be a lawyer and investigates mysteries in his town. The series began with Theodore Boone: Kid Lawyer (2010).
Grisham was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, on Feb. 8, 1955, and received a law degree from the University of Mississippi in 1981. He practiced law in Mississippi from 1981 to 1990. He also served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1984 to 1990. Grisham has drawn on his own experiences in his fiction. His first novel, A Time to Kill (1989), deals with the trial of a Black man accused of killing two white men who raped his 10-year-old daughter. Grisham wrote the novel after he witnessed a girl testifying in a rape trial. He later wrote the sequels Sycamore Row (2013) and A Time for Mercy (2020).
