| Name | John Grisham |
| Pen Name | NA |
| Nationality | American |
| Born | February 8, 1955 |
| Died | NA |
| Occupation | Writer, Lawyer, and Former Member of the Mississippi House of Representatives |
| Education | Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Jurisprudence |
| Genre | Legal thriller, Crime Fiction, Southern Gothic |
| Notable Works | The Rainmaker, The Firm, The Partner, and The Guardians |
| Notable Awards | Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award |
| Height | - 1.85 m |
| Spouses | Renee Grisham |
| Children | Shea Grisham and Ty Grisham |
| Official Website | jgrisham.com |
John Ray Grisham Jr. was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, in the year 1955. Later, he moved to Mississippi state with his family. His father, John Ray Grisham Sr., was a construction worker and cotton farmer who had high hopes from all his five children. Grisham was second among them.
As a young kid, John aspired to become a great Baseball player. Baseball was his childhood fancy and his first love affair. But that dream of his didn’t come to fruition as, at the age of 18, he nearly faced a fatal incident compelling enough to say goodbye to that baseball career.
His parents were not very well-read. But his mother, Wanda (née Skidmore), wanted him to pursue a proper education. Hence, she encouraged him to go to college.
John went through many phases of odd jobs during his teenage years to support his family. In his youth, he worked as a salesman clerk for a department store in the men’s underwear section. It wasn’t a pleasant experience for him at the time, as he recalled later.
On his parent’s insistence, he went to college. He completed his graduation from Mississippi State University in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science. He had a strong inclination toward civil law and hoped to become a tax lawyer. So, enrolled himself at the University of Mississippi School of Law.
During these initial years of navigating life as a practicing lawyer, Grisham didn’t have much of a literary influence on his life. Writing wasn’t even a career option for him at the time. He simply loved reading case studies and books on civil litigation. He didn’t have any literary ambition as such.
He continued practicing law for ten years in a small community firm in Southaven. He started attending many court sessions and hearings for a better attorney experience. But soon, he got disinterested in practicing criminal law as an attorney and decided to be more productive by writing about all the real-life case studies.
His sincere inclination toward civil laws and real-life case studies allowed him to experience the justice system very closely. He understood the banal complexity and sheer lunacy of the criminal justice system in a very realistic way.
Inspired by his favorite English author, John Le Carre, he began writing fiction and thrillers, adopting his own style. He started dedicating more time to writing as he felt the process was mentally satisfying.
He understood the power of fiction, specifically crime fiction. “Fiction reckons for pure catharsis” later, he wrote to The Times of New York. He incorporated his legal experiences and research materials into his writing journey.
He said a rape case of a minor girl inspired him to write his first novel. The gruesome details of her testimony made him scoop out an interesting story dramatic enough for a legal thriller book.
He started spending more time at Mississippi’s criminal justice system court hearings. His first book was titled, “A Time to Kill,” which was rejected by many publishers.
Somehow, he managed to get it published without any marketing support as such. The book didn’t do well and ended up selling just over 5,000 copies. It was a little disappointing for him initially. But he moved on with it and started looking for different story ideas based on legal tribulations.
Eventually, his writing career blossomed with the publication of his second book, “The Firm,” in 1991, which talks about the inner workings of a law firm set up by the Mafia to launder money and concoct tax evasions. It sold 1.5 million copies in 1993 and later got adapted for a Hollywood feature film starring Tom Cruise.
This initial success of his book prompted him to give up practicing law and primarily focus on writing. His next books were The Pelican Brief and The Client, which garnered him much more appreciation in the literary circle. He decided to keep on writing such books with great detailing and proper research material for good literature.
He received the prestigious Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement for creating a record of 37 consecutive number-one bestselling fiction books. A total of 50 of his books have sold more than 300 million copies worldwide.
Writing Style And Approach
Legal Thrillers are John Grisham’s forte. He excels brilliantly in presenting an engaging court drama full of great twists and turns. He understands the legal system’s complexity and perfectly utilizes it for a proper dramatis personae.
Most of the books by John Grisham are written specifically from a third-person perspective. An omniscient point of view that unfolds the whole narrative structure of his novels.
John Grisham follows a modern prosaic style in his writing. He carefully balances the reality and the fictionalized human drama to create a lasting impact in the minds of the reader.
Grisham’s approach as a writer is simply to create a humanistic point of view without being too preachy. He deliberately avoids literary cliches or tropes of legal courtroom dramas to keep his style more specific and less generic.
The tone of most of his novels is primarily tragic, as the characters feel some kind of retribution in their life. They are all struggling for a certain reconciliation to redeem themselves morally and socially.
John Grisham often presents a world where petty lawyers, judges, criminals, and victims, all struggle for justice in a world where morality is totally defused with legal tribulations and complexities.
The legal premises of these novels are simply used as a strong backdrop for creating great dramatic conflicts and character dynamics that are highly engaging for a reader’s mind.
Racial Discrimination, Violence, and Racial injustice are all significant themes of John Grisham’s novels. Growing up in the southern states of the U.S., Grisham experienced many brutal incidents of racial discrimination perpetrating violence in his neighborhood.
It had a major influence on him while growing up. Part of the reason for him to practice law was to understand the genesis of this racial discrimination in the United States.
His proximity and case studies of all such court hearings related to racial matters shaped his thinking and made him incorporate it into his story.
He developed a specific approach to portray racism in his literary works by dealing with it sensitively and highlighting the insensitive way it is used to manipulate the legal system and basic human rights.
For example, in his seminal book A Time to Kill, Grisham presents a certain kind of moral ambiguity in his central protagonist Jack Brigance who fights for a man compelled to kill the rapists of his daughter in the name of justice.
Being a morally upright attendant of law, Jack understands the real agony of this man’s appeal to the justice system as a victim of racial discrimination. The way he fights for him and brings a conclusion to his case defines the humanistic point of view Grisham wants his readers to focus on.
John Grisham didn’t have much of any literary influence while growing up. He didn’t think much about writing in the initial years of his life and started writing professionally only when he was in his 30s.
He was only interested in civil litigations and case studies of the Mississippi state of law. They were the real inspiration for him to discover his own style of writing based on real-life incidents.
Later on, he started reading some fiction to gain a literary perspective. He cited John Steinbeck (1902-1968) as one of his early influences. Particularly, Steinbeck’s realistic style of writing had a great impact on him.
He firmly identified with Steinbeck’s social perception and sympathetic humor in his notable works, such as East of Eden (1952) and The Grapes of Wrath (1939).
Celebrated English Author John le Carré also had some major influence on him, specifically in writing thrillers. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (1974), The Little Drummer Girl (1983), and The Night Manager (1993) are some of his favorite espionage thriller books by Le Carré.
John Le Carré’s The Little Drummer had an important influence on Grisham’s 2016 The Whistler.
Apart from great best-selling novels and literary prose writing (short stories, essays, non-fiction, etc.), John Grisham has made many contributions to the film and television industry as a writer and executive producer.
Films
- The Rainmaker
- The Pelican Brief
- The Client
- A Time to Kill
- The Chamber
Television
- The Client (1995–1996) 1 season, 20 episodes
- A Painted House (television film)
- The Street Lawyer (TV pilot)
- The Innocent Man (also served as an executive producer)
Here is a listing of some of the most prestigious awards and state honors that John Grisham has received:
- Peggy v. Helmerich Distinguished Author
- Library of Congress Creative Achievement Award for Fiction
- Galaxy British Lifetime Achievement Award
- Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement for Fiction
- The Inaugural Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction for The Confession
