Biography

A graduate of Mississippi State University and Ole Miss Law School, John Grisham obtained his law degree in 1981 and practiced law for about 10 years, specializing in criminal defense and personal injury litigation. He was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives in 1983 and served until 1990. He gave up his law practice to write full-time. He began writing in 1984, and three years later finished his first novel, "A Time To Kill", published by Wynwood Press in June 1988. He is the best-selling author of "A Time to Kill", "The Firm", "The Pelican Brief" and "The Client". He lives with his wife and their two children on a farm in Oxford, Mississippi.
- IMDb mini biography by: A. Nonymous

His mother was a housewife. He has four siblings. Grisham spent part of his childhood and youth in Southaven, Mississippi. He attended high school there. One of his early career aspirations was that he wanted to be a baseball player. But then he began studying law at Mississippi State University. Grisham was already active as a writer during his student days. He completed his studies in 1981. In the same year he married Renee Jones. He opened a law firm specializing in criminal court cases. In 1983 and 1987 he was a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives for the Democratic Party.

A rape trial in 1984 was the initial spark for Grisham's literary work. This is how his crime novel "A Time to Kill" (in German: "The Jury") was written in 1989, in which he included his experiences and impressions from the rape trial. John Grisham offered the work to numerous publishers, but he received rejections everywhere. Then it was accepted by an unknown publishing house and published with a circulation of only 5,000 copies. From 1990 he lived as a professional writer after giving up his legal and political activities. The breakthrough came with his second work, the 1991 title "The firm", published in German with the title "Die Firm".

The book became an international bestseller. At the same time, "The Jury" was released again. In 1993, "The firm" was made into a film by Sydney Pollack, with the participation of film stars such as Gene Hackman and Tom Cruise. Starting in 1992, John Grisham produced a book every year. The author was also internationally successful with works such as "The Pelican Brief" (1992, German: "The File"), "The Client" (1993, German: "Der Klient"), "The Rainmaker" (1995 , German: "The Rainmaker"), "The Street Lawyer" (1998, German: "Betrayal") and "The Brethren" (2000. German: "The Brotherhood"). This was followed by the novels "A Painted House" (2001) and "The Summons" (2002, German for "The Judge").

His complete work also includes the screenplay "The Gingerbread Man". Grisham became known for the fact that his criminal stories took place in the legal and judicial environment. The title "The Pelican Brief" was made into a film starring Julia Roberts. Although his novels follow a simple pattern, John Grisham became one of the most successful writers of the 1990s. Grisham has sold over 65 million books translated into 32 languages. In 2006 he published the title "The Innocent Man". "The Associate" and "The Confession" followed in 2009 and 2010.

John Grisham lives in Charlottesville, Virginia and Oxford, Mississippi. He has a son. The author is a strict Baptist and supports charitable projects.
- IMDb mini biography by: Christian_Wolfgang_Barth