JOHN GRISHAM
With an ear for dialogue and an ability to make legalese understandable to the
ordinary reader, lawyer John Grisham became a best-selling writer of legal thrillers. His
fast-moving, suspenseful novels often feature an underdog lawyer who must skilfully
battle powerful oppressors to save lives. Grisham began writing his first novel after
observing a rape trial involving a 10-year-old victim. Stirred by the intense emotions in
the courtroom, he wondered what a jury would do if the girl's father killed the attacker.
Although he was already devoting more than 70 hours a week to his practice, Grisham
got up early each day for three years to write what became
A Time to Kill. Some two
dozen publishers rejected the book before Wynwood Press bought the manuscript for
15,000 dollars and printed 5,000 copies in 1989. A New York movie scout saw the
manuscript for Grisham's next novel before it was sold, and Paramount studios bought
the rights to it for 600,000 dollars. This brought attention from many large book
publishers, and Grisham quit his practice after signing a contract with the publisher
Doubleday.
The Firm (1991) spent almost a year on the New York Times best-seller list
and was translated into more than 25 languages. Tom Cruise starred in the movie
version, which was one of the top-grossing films of 1993. Grisham solidified his
reputation as one of the most popular writers of the 1990s with
The Pelican Brief (1992),
The Client (1993),
The Chamber (1994),
The Rainmaker (1995),
The Runaway Jury
(1996), and
The Partner (1997). The reissue of
A Time to Kill also did well. The film
rights to Grisham's novels now command millions of dollars.
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