John R. Grisham was born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas. He is mostly influenced by the work of author John Steinbeck. He currently shares his life with his wife Renee Jones and their two children. They reside in Oxford, Mississippi, and they also have a home in Virginia. As of the year 2008, his books have sold over 235 million copies worldwide and in 29 different languages.

Grisham graduated from Southaven High School in Southaven, Mississippi, where he played quarterback on the football team, and in 1977 from Mississippi State University with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Accounting. He also graduated from the University of Mississippi law school in 1981 with a Juris Doctor Degree. He ran his own law firm for almost a decade before becoming a full time author. Besides being a lawyer, he served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1983 until 1990.

His first success came with his second book, The Firm, which became the seventh best selling novel of 1991. Some of his other titles include A Time to Kill, The Pelican Brief, and The Client. Most of his novels are based on legal occurrences, many of them cases that he himself saw while serving as a lawyer. His books are so popular, a few of them have been made into major motion pictures.

In addition to his writing, Grisham holds a seat on the Board of Directors for the Innocence Project, an organization devoted to exonerating the innocent through DNA testing after they have been convicted of a crime.