Past Library of Congress National Book Festivals
Related Resources at the Library
John Grisham
Fiction & Fantasy Pavilion
10 - 10:55 am
Book Signing
11 - 11:45 am
Long before his name became synonymous with the modern legal thriller, John Grisham was working 60 to 70 hours a week at a small Mississippi law practice, squeezing in time before going to the office and during courtroom recesses to work on his hobby: writing his first novel, A Time to Kill. It initially sold a modest 5,000 copies. His next book was the beginning of one of publishing’s greatest success stories. When Grisham sold the film rights to The Firm, he suddenly became a hot property among publishers, and book rights were bought by Doubleday. The Firm became the best-selling novel of 1991. Since first publishing A Time to Kill in 1988, Grisham has written one novel a year and all of them have become international best-sellers, with more than 235 million John Grisham books in print worldwide. His latest smash hit is The Associate (2009). Grisham lives in Mississippi and Virginia.
