Grisham, John (1955– )

US writer. His courtroom thrillers A Time to Kill (1989), The Firm (1991), The Pelican Brief (1992), The Client (1993), The Chamber (1994), and The Rain Maker (1995) were all bestsellers. Several of his books have been made into successful films.

Grisham was born in Arkansas, the son of a migrant construction worker who moved around the southern USA. He worked as a tax lawyer in Mississippi, and sat as a Democrat in the Mississippi state legislature 1983–90. Other novels include The Testament (1999), The Brethren (2000), The Summons (2002), The Last Juror (2004), and The Broker (2005). Departures from the legal genre include the semi-autobiographical coming-of-age story A Painted House, the comic tale Skipping Christmas (both 2001), and the American football-based novels Bleachers (2003) and Playing for Pizza (2007).