John Grisham became a world famous writer with his book The Firm. Although he never wanted to be a writer, he has now written over nine books, many of them best- sellers (Arnold 29). Examining his writing will show why John Grisham quit his previous job as a lawyer. I will start by telling about his childhood, education, family, then on to his career.
John Grisham led a mostly normal childhood. Grisham was born in 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas (Current 221). The son of a construction worker and a homemaker, Grisham and his family moved around the deep South according to where his father’s work was (Ferranti 43). In 1967 the Grisham family moved to a permanent residence in Southaven, Mississippi, a suburb of Memphis, Tennessee (Current 221). John Grisham said, “We didn’t have a lot of money, but we didn’t know it, we were fed and loved and scrubbed” (Hubbard 44). Along with being a famous writer, Grisham is also a devout Christian. While his father usually had to work seven days a week, Grisham’s mother always had Grisham and his four siblings in church every Sunday. Grisham said, “My mother led me to Jesus.” He was eight-years-old when he confirmed his faith in God and says “It was the most important event in my life” (Norton 16).
John Grisham an excellent education, going to some very good schools. He went to high school in Southaven, Mississippi. He was not the best student, but Grisham found his passion in high school sports, especially baseball (Hubbard 44). After high school Grisham found himself in the situation of choosing where he wanted to go to college and what to major in. He chose to attend Mississippi State University and found he wanted to become a tax lawyer. After earning his B.S. degree in accounting, Grisham enrolled at the University Law School. After his first class in tax law, Grisham transferred out and into criminal defense law. In 1981 he graduated from law school with a J.D. degree (Current 221).
John Grisham wasted no time going right into his new business of a lawyer. After finishing college Grisham set up a private practice in Southaven (Ferranti 42). Almost as soon as he opened his practice, Grisham disliked his chosen field. After accepting, and winning, his first case he decided to switch to civil law. Yet Grisham found the field of civil law just as bad as criminal law and tried to run for Mississippi state legislature (Current 222). In 1983 John Grisham was elected to the State Senate, but again found himself in a field he disliked. Shortly before his second term, Grisham resigned his seat and decided to try something he never had dreamed about, writing (Hubbard 44). Meanwhile during all this Grisham was still a lawyer.
Grisham’s inspiration for writing hit him one day when he never expected it. One day at the De Soto County courthouse, Grisham listened to the testimony of a 12-year-old rape victim. Grisham wondered what it would be like if the girl’s father had killed the rapist and was then put on trial himself (Hubbard 43). Grisham quit the possession of being a lawyer in 1990. This was the inspiration to Grisham’s first book. A Time to Kill gathered twenty-eight rejections before it was accepted and published by Wynwood Press. His next book, the book Grisham is most famous for, The Firm also racked up the rejections from publishers. When the copy of The Firm landed in Hollywood, everyone wanted it; eighteen publishers begged Grisham to let them publish it (Hubbard 44). Grisham went on to write nine more novels in his nine years of being a writer, with five of them becoming movies. Forbes magazine ranked John Grisham as one of the wealthiest entertainers in the world. In 1996 alone he earned $43 million. A Grisham novel will usually have a total sell of well over two million in hardcover with an additional three or four million in paperback (Arnold 29).
John Grisham leads a quite life due to the fact that he is usually writing. But in 1996 Grisham decided to sue Oliver Stone, the director of the movie Natural Born Killers. Grisham was suing because in March 1995 William Savage, a friend of Grisham’s was shot at the cotton gin where he worked in Mississippi. The next day a convenience store clerk Patsy Byers was shot and paralyzed. Ben Darras, 18, and Sarah Edmondson, 19, were accused of the crimes. Edmondson told authorities she and Darras took LSD and watched Natural Born Killers before committing the crimes. This angered Grisham who decided to sue, but Stone called all the charges against him, “Ridiculously bizarre” (Gleick 90).
John Grisham’s idea of the good life is sipping tea on the veranda with Renee, his wife of eighteen years. He also loves watching his two children, son, Ty, age fourteen, and daughter, Shea, age twelve. The Grisham family lives in a 204-year-old house on 100 acres outside of Charlottesville, Virginia. The grounds include tennis courts, swimming pool, croquet courts, horse stables, a full-time house keeper and maintaince man, and a private jet. Grisham swears, “We still think of ourselves as normal people” and defines normal as coaching his kid’s Little League teams, teaching Sunday School, going on mission trips with members of his Southaven Baptist Church, donating to good causes, and, of course, writing one novel each year (Ferranti 82).
John Grisham was co-writing the screenplay for The Rainmaker with director Francis Ford Coppola, and sold the movie rights to The Runaway Jury for a record eight million (Ferranti 42). On February 4, 1998, Grisham’s book The Street Lawyer was introduced to the public The latest of his nine novels has two and a half million copies in bookstores in the U.S. and Canada right now (Arnold 29). In fact he has came out with another novel which was released in February of 1999 called The Testament.
Другие работы по теме:
John Steinbeck Biography Essay Research Paper John
John Steinbeck Biography Essay, Research Paper John Ernst Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California, on February 27, 1902 of German and Irish ancestry. His father, John Steinbeck, Sr., served as the County Treasurer while his mother, Olive (Hamilton) Steinbeck, a former school teacher, fostered Steinbeck’s love of reading and the written word.
Biography Of John Steinbeck Essay Research Paper
Biography of John Steinbeck John Steinbeck was born in 1902, in California’s Salinas Valley, a region that would eventually serve as the setting for Of Mice and Men as well as many of his other works. He studied literature and writing at Stanford University, but disenrolled in 1925, after six years, without a degree.
Street Lawyer Essay Research Paper The most
Street Lawyer Essay, Research Paper The most common tale we hear of lawyers today is one of fast-rising, high-billing, no-feeling type of lawyers. Most people overlook the lawyers that do pro-bono work. (That is work for free for the charity of those who can’t afford it.) Michael Brock started off as another lawyer who was on the fast track to partnership in a large firm with big billing habits.
BiographyWilliam Shakespeare Essay Research Paper Biography William
Biography:William Shakespeare Essay, Research Paper Biography: William Shakespeare William Shakespeare, playwright, whose work stands to be the most translated non-religious literature ever was born on April 23rd, 1564 and was baptized the day after in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire. He was the third of eight children born into the family of John Shakespeare-a well known merchant, and Mary Arden.
The Pigman Essay Research Paper In the
The Pigman Essay, Research Paper In the novel, The Pigman, writing by Paul Zindel the main characters are Mr.Pignati, John and Lorraine. They all meet by chance and each becomes a trespasser on another’s life. However, John and Lorraine each gain something from their experience with the Mr.Pignati. Mr.Pignati, John and Lorraine all have their own individual reasons and desires for wanting to be with each character.
Jesus In John Essay Research Paper Jesus
Jesus In John Essay, Research Paper Jesus in John When reading the gospels of the New Testament, it becomes evident that the personality of each of the authors affected their understanding, interpretation, and impression of Jesus and his works. In John, the gospel that I chose to read for this paper, Jesus is portrayed in a more godlike, omnipotent manner.
Jfk Jr Essay Research Paper John F
Jfk Jr Essay, Research Paper John F. Kennedy Jr. John Fitzgerald Kennedy Jr. was born on November 25, 1960, two and a half weeks after his father was elected president of the United States and less than two months before his father was inaugurated. Three years later, that father, murdered by an assassin’s bullet, was buried on John’s third birthday.
Francis Ford Coppola A Filmma Essay Research
Paper In Francis Ford Coppola: A Filmmaker s Life, Michael Schumacher aims to provide a wealth of details about all aspects of the creation of most of Coppola’s films. In detail, Schumacher works on Dementia 13 through John Grisham’s The Rainmaker, charting Coppola’s techniques with actors and crew, the integration of his family into the work, and his well-publicized battles with Hollywood executives.
The Rainmaker Essay Research Paper The RainmakerThe
The Rainmaker Essay, Research Paper The RainmakerThe world is full of great novels. From Sherlock Holmes to the threemusketeers. As the years progress more novels are written and more moneyis made. John Grisham is a rising star in literature. His books haveenticed readers and has given the people something good to read.
The Rainmaker Essay Research Paper The Rainmaker
The Rainmaker Essay, Research Paper The Rainmaker, a persuasive paper John Grisham?s ?The Rainmaker,? a novel and now a movie by Francis Ford Copolla. It is the sixth novel to film adaptation of Grisham?s novels and is by far one of the more accomplished. The courtroom drama reveals the ordeals of a young lawyer and associate entering the world of money hungry company?s scams. ?They were totally unqualified to try the case of a life time, but every underdog has his day? Let’s talk about silk purses and sow’s ears.
Runaway Jury Essay Research Paper Jury duty
Runaway Jury Essay, Research Paper Jury duty won’t make you rich. But unfortunately, no judge ever delivered that instruction to Nicholas Easter, protagonist-juror in John Grisham’s new novel The Runaway Jury . It’s a timely legal thriller: giant tobacco companies versus the giant anti-smoking lobby.
The Runaway Jury Essay Research Paper Normally
The Runaway Jury Essay, Research Paper Normally the lawyers give their arguments and then the jury go and deliberate but not so in John Grisham?s thriller ?The Runaway Jury?. In this book one mysterious girl, known only as Marlee, is controlling the whole jury from the outside. Her background is obscure and if they knew it they wouldn?t trust her.
The Firm Essay Research Paper Fraud in
The Firm Essay, Research Paper Fraud in The Firm John Grisham was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, on February 8, 1955. In 1967 he lived in Southhaven, Mississippi. In 1977 he received an undergraduate degree in accounting. In 1981 he attended law school at the school at the University of Mississippi where he earned a degree.
Biography Of Oedipus Essay Research Paper Oedipys
Biography Of Oedipus Essay, Research Paper Oedipys’s date of birth is unknown. He was born to Polybus and Merope, but Jocasta is his real mother. Oedipus was born in Thebes, but he spent most of his adult life in Corinth. Due to some mistakes that Oedipus makes prior to the start of the play, trouble seems to surround him later.
The Chamber Essay Research Paper A Question
The Chamber Essay, Research Paper A Question of Life or Death The novel The Chamber, by John Grisham, is an emotional account of a lawyer’s struggle to liberate his racist grandfather from death row. This attorney not only battles to save a life but skirmishes against of the most debated topics of modern society: capital punishment.
John Marshall Essay Research Paper John Marshall
John Marshall Essay, Research Paper John Marshall was born on September 24, 1755 in Prince William County, Virginia. When John was ten, his father decided that they were going to move into a valley in the Blue Ridge Mountains, almost thirty miles from the house they lived.
The Rainmaker Essay Research Paper The RainmakerEnticing
The Rainmaker Essay, Research Paper The Rainmaker Enticing readers and basically giving people something good to read, John Grisham is an established star in literature. What makes his books so great is that they are so realistic. He applies his personal law and trial knowledge into the books he writes. Put together with creative story telling, his makes his novels hard to put down.
Movie Review Of A Time To
Kill Essay, Research Paper I never read A Time To Kill by John Grisham because the book bored me. But I wonder why it did bore me because the movie was engrossing and entertaining. Maybe it is because Akiva Goldsman took out most of the boring parts. I usually love Grisham, but this book was just too slow. However, another thing that made the movie more entertaining is the actors.
Dickens Biography Essay Research Paper In the
Dickens Biography Essay, Research Paper In the Charles Dickens novel, A Tale of Two Cities, symbolism in used to portray the themes though out the book. Through his characters and their actions as well as their
Basics On Keats Essay Research Paper John
Basics On Keats Essay, Research Paper -John Keats was born in 1795 and died in 1821 -John Keats was born in Moorfield, England -John Keats had two brothers, George and Tom, and a sister Fanny
John Grisham Essay Research Paper POOR BOY
John Grisham Essay, Research Paper POOR BOY TO CELEBRITY John Grisham has risen from a poor boy to a very a famous and successful author with best-selling novels. He has had eleven excellent books published and will soon have his twelfth novel published. Grisham has used his education in law to write innovative novels about court cases and lawyers.
John Grisham
– Rainmaker Essay, Research Paper The Rainmaker The world is full of great novels. From Sherlock Holmes to the three musketeers. As the years progress more novels are written and more money
The Brethren By John Grisham Essay Research
Paper The book I read was The Brethren, by John Grisham. It was a suspense book. Three judges, called The Brethren by their fellow prisoners, lived in a very minimal security prison. They had just begun fine ? tuning a mail scam that extorted homosexuals with families and lots of money. Then, they snag the wrong person, someone very powerful on the outside.
Chamber By John Grisham Essay Research Paper
The Chamber, written by John Grisham, is about the presence of the Klu Klux Klan in Mississippi. It shows the harsh reality of racism and it was still heavy in some Southern states. In the story, a young Jewish lawyer has his office bombed by members of the KKK.
The Client John Grisham Essay Research Paper
In writing the Crime novel The Client , John Grisham has quite effectively intertwined the plot, characters, themes and issues to create a dramatic and suspenseful story. To do this he creates strong interesting characters along with an in depth storyline to lure the reader in. John Grisham raises important themes and issues in all his novels, this story raises such issues as suicide and corruption.
Client Essay Research Paper The Client
Client Essay, Research Paper ?The Client? / John Grisham 1. I enjoyed reading this interesting book. It talks about eleven years old Mark Sway and his younger
Calvin John Biography Essay Research Paper CALVIN
Calvin John Biography Essay, Research Paper CALVIN JOHN (1509-64). When John Calvin was a boy in France, Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation in Germany. Two decades later Calvin became the second of the great 16th-century reformers. His work and teachings had a profound impact on the development of Christianity.
John Lennon Biography Essay Research Paper Shonn
John Lennon Biography Essay, Research Paper Shonn Slivkoff John Lennon 1940-1980 John Lennon, a singer, artist, guitar player, among many other things. What didn’t he accomplish in a lifetime? John Lennon was born on October 9, 1940, In Liverpool, England. When John was 4 years old his parents split up and John was sent to go live with his Aunt Mimi.