64-555: The Appeal is a 2008 novel by John Grisham , his 21st book and his first fictional legal thriller since The Broker in 2005. The novel explores the interplay of corporate power, politics, and judicial ethics in the U.S. legal system, focusing on the influence of money in judicial elections. Set in Mississippi , the novel follows attorneys Wes and Mary Grace Payton as they seek justice for Jeannette Baker, whose family members died due to water contamination caused by Krane Chemical,
128-573: A J.D. degree. Grisham practiced law for about a decade and won election as a Democrat to the Mississippi House of Representatives , serving from 1983 to 1990. He challenged the incumbent after becoming embarrassed by Mississippi's national reputation and inspired by the passage of the Education Reform Act of 1982 . Grisham represented the 7th District, which included DeSoto County, Mississippi . By his second term in
192-675: A literalist understanding of the Bible , and endorses the American separation of church and state . In 1993, he created with his wife a foundation, entirely financed by his royalties, which contributes to Baptist missionaries in Brazil for the purchase of medicines and the construction of chapels, clinics and schools. He also participated in some missionary work in Brazil , under the First Baptist Church of Oxford. Grisham has
256-815: A $ 1.2 million donation to the Cavalier baseball team in Charlottesville, Virginia, which was used in the 2002 renovation of Davenport Field . His son Ty played college baseball for the University of Virginia . Grisham is a member of the board of directors of the Innocence Project , which campaigns to free and exonerate unjustly convicted people on the basis of DNA evidence. The Innocence Project contends that wrongful convictions are not isolated or rare events but instead arise from systemic defects. Grisham has testified before Congress on behalf of
320-420: A 5,000-copy printing. When Doubleday published The Firm , Wynwood released a trade paperback of A Time to Kill , which became a bestseller. Dell published the mass market paperback months after the success of The Firm , bringing Grisham to widespread popularity among readers. Doubleday eventually took over the contract for A Time to Kill and released a special hardcover edition. The story takes place in
384-404: A Mockingbird as an influence. Another stated inspiration was the success of Presumed Innocent . In the small town of Clanton, in fictional Ford County, Mississippi , a ten-year-old African-American girl named Tonya Hailey is violently raped by two neo-Confederates , James "Pete" Willard and Billy Ray Cobb, shortly after stealing a Confederate Flag from a local college exhibition. Tonya
448-593: A company owned by billionaire Carl Trudeau. After a jury awards $ 41 million in damages, Trudeau manipulates the judicial election system to secure a favorable ruling on appeal, funding the campaign of judicial candidate Ron Fisk to unseat a justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court . Fisk, who is politically inexperienced, is drawn into a campaign orchestrated by a secretive firm specializing in judicial elections. Despite initial resistance, Fisk ultimately sides with corporate interests, helping overturn
512-449: A degree. Although he started there as an economics major, he eventually graduated from Mississippi State University in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science in accounting after being inspired by a fellow student, a Vietnam veteran, who planned to go to law school. He later enrolled in the University of Mississippi School of Law intending to become a tax lawyer, but his interest shifted to general civil litigation. He graduated in 1981 with
576-538: A fan of Mississippi State University's baseball team and wrote about his ties to the university and the Left Field Lounge in the introduction for the book Dudy Noble Field: A Celebration of MSU Baseball . Since moving to the Charlottesville area, Grisham has become a supporter of Virginia Cavaliers athletics and is regularly seen sitting courtside at basketball games. Grisham also contributed to
640-836: A home in Destin, Florida , and a condominium in Chapel Hill, North Carolina . Their former and longtime Victorian home on a farm outside Oxford, Mississippi , was given to the University of Mississippi after 2011. Grisham owns a beachfront home on Amelia Island in Florida. Grisham is a member of the University Baptist Church in Charlottesville, Virginia , itself a constituent of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship . Grisham opposes
704-400: A lifelong passion for baseball , demonstrated partly by his support of Little League activities in both Oxford, Mississippi , and in Charlottesville . In 1996, Grisham built a $ 3.8 million youth baseball complex. In A Painted House , a novel with strong autobiographical elements, the protagonist, a seven-year-old farmer boy, manifests a strong wish to become a baseball player. He remains
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#1732794357824768-441: A place where he felt at home, noting, "I loved the big lecture halls, and I came to enjoy the professors. For the first time, after being at several schools, I was on a real campus with a diverse student body, different professors from around the world, big time sports, all of the activities that a big college can bring, and I really fell in love with State." A complete listing of works by John Grisham: † Denotes novels not in
832-421: A pre-prepared statement he had written for Jake. On the day of the verdict, tens of thousands of black citizens gather in town and demand Carl Lee's acquittal. After a long and contentious deliberation, in which the jurors have to contend with one particularly racist member of the panel who openly insists on using the "N"-word routinely during the deliberations, a unanimous acquittal by reason of temporary insanity
896-400: Is "locking up far too many people". Citing examples including "black teenagers on minor drugs charges" to "those who had viewed child porn online", he controversially added that he believed not all viewers of child pornography are necessarily pedophiles. After hearing from numerous people against this position, he later recanted this statement in a Facebook post. He went on to clarify that he
960-518: Is an American novelist, lawyer, and former member of the Mississippi House of Representatives , known for his best-selling legal thrillers . According to the American Academy of Achievement , Grisham has written 37 consecutive number-one fiction bestsellers, and his books have sold 300 million copies worldwide. Along with Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling , Grisham is one of only three anglophone authors to have sold two million copies on
1024-408: Is finally achieved when one of the jurors asks the others to seriously imagine that Carl Lee and his daughter were white and that the murdered rapists were black, and polling the jury by secret ballot on the question of whether they would kill the rapists in such a case. After finding this question to be answered with a unanimous "yes," the jury finally acknowledges that they must hold a black father to
1088-440: Is later found and rushed to the hospital while Pete and Billy Ray are heard bragging at a roadside bar about their crime. Tonya's outraged father, Carl Lee Hailey, consults his friend Jake Brigance, a white attorney who had previously represented Hailey's brother, on whether he could get himself acquitted if he killed the two men. Jake tells Carl Lee not to do anything stupid, but admits that if it had been his daughter, he would kill
1152-480: Is set in Clanton in the 1970s. Harry Rex Vonner also appears in the 2002 Grisham novel, The Summons , and in the short story "Fish Files", in the 2009 collection Ford County . Grisham has described the book as "very autobiographical" in that the novel's "young attorney is basically me" and the drama is based on a case he witnessed. In 1984 Grisham witnessed the harrowing testimony of a 12-year-old rape victim at
1216-548: The Charlie Rose show, Grisham stated that he usually takes only six months to write a book, and his favorite author is John le Carré . In 2011 and 2012, his novels The Litigators and The Racketeer claimed the top spot in The New York Times best seller list. The novels were among the best selling books of those years, spending several weeks atop various best seller lists. In 2013, he again reached
1280-481: The Clarion-Ledger urging that an inset within the flag of Mississippi containing a Confederate flag be removed. He co-authored the letter with author Greg Iles ; the pair contacted various public figures from Mississippi for support. Grisham supported Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016. In his 2018 Fall Convocation address to new students, Grisham described Mississippi State University as
1344-676: The Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia , Mississippi, where he hoped to launch his baseball career but was benched instead. He and two close friends, Bubba Logan and Parker Pickle, transferred to Delta State University in Cleveland where Grisham hoped to revive his baseball career as a walk on player, but he was cut from the team and he left school after one semester. Ultimately, Grisham changed colleges three times before completing
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#17327943578241408-595: The Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award , which is presented annually by the Tulsa Library Trust . In 2010, Grisham started writing a series of legal thrillers for children. They feature Theodore Boone , a 13-year-old who gives his classmates legal advice on a multitude of scenarios, ranging from rescuing impounded dogs to helping their parents prevent their house from being repossessed. He said, "I'm hoping primarily to entertain and interest kids, but at
1472-629: The DeSoto County courthouse in Hernando, Mississippi . Two sisters, Julie Scott, 16 years old, and Marcie Scott, her twelve-year-old sister, had both been raped, brutally beaten, and nearly murdered by Willie James Harris. Unlike Grisham's depiction, however, the Scotts were white and their assailant was black. According to Grisham's official website, Grisham used his spare time to begin his first novel, which "explored what would have happened if
1536-548: The Innocence Project. Grisham has appeared on Dateline NBC , Bill Moyers Journal on PBS , and other programs. He wrote for The New York Times in 2013 about an unjustly held prisoner at Guantanamo . Grisham opposes capital punishment , a position very strongly manifested in the plot of The Confession . He believes that prison rates in the United States are excessive, and the justice system
1600-542: The John Grisham Room, an archive containing materials generated during the author's tenure as Mississippi State Representative and relating to his writings. In 2012, the Law Library at the University of Mississippi School of Law was renamed in his honor. It had been named for more than a decade after the late Senator James Eastland . In 2015, Grisham, along with about 60 others, signed a letter published in
1664-458: The Paytons' victory. The novel also explores the personal toll on Fisk, particularly when his son is critically injured, forcing him to confront the consequences of corporate negligence in his own life, but also of the ethics of allowing personal sentiments to alter his legal reasoning. In the end, he rules for a plaintiff in a less important tort, implying his jurisprudence may change following
1728-412: The age of 18, after a game in which a pitcher aimed a beanball at him and narrowly missed doing the young Grisham grave harm. Although Grisham's parents lacked formal education, his mother encouraged him to read and prepare for college. He drew on his childhood experiences for his novel A Painted House . Grisham started working for a plant nursery as a teenager, watering bushes for $ 1.00 an hour. He
1792-406: The biggest verdict of his career." Although he failed English in community college, Grisham received praise for his writing while taking a business correspondence course during law school. Grisham said a case that inspired his first novel came in 1984, but it was not his case. He heard a 12-year-old girl telling a jury what had happened to her. Her story intrigued Grisham. He saw how the members of
1856-669: The collection Ford County are also set in and around Clanton. Other Grisham novels have non-fictional Southern settings, for example The Partner , The Runaway Jury , and The Boys from Biloxi are set in Biloxi , and large portions of The Pelican Brief in New Orleans . A Painted House is set in and around the town of Black Oak, Arkansas, where Grisham spent some of his childhood. Grisham married Renee Jones on May 8, 1981. The couple have two children. The family splits their time among their home in Charlottesville, Virginia,
1920-403: The conclusion of the novel. The story is a cautionary tale about the danger of mixing politics and the judiciary. The Appeal deals with themes of corruption, the influence of money in politics, and the vulnerability of the judicial system. It critiques the practice of electing judges, especially when major financial contributors have cases pending before the court. Grisham’s narrative highlights
1984-469: The courthouse, missing Jake but seriously wounding one of the guardsmen assigned to protect him. Soon after, Ellen Roark is abducted and assaulted. They burn down Jake's house. During trial deliberations, the jury's spokesman is threatened by a KKK member with a knife. Eventually, they torture and murder "Mickey Mouse", one of Jake's former clients who had infiltrated the KKK and subsequently gave anonymous tips to
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2048-781: The dangers of judicial elections, pointing to the inherent conflicts of interest they can create. The Appeal received mixed to positive reviews. Critics praised Grisham’s portrayal of the judicial system and its ethical conflicts. Still, they noted that the novel’s plot is more political commentary than a traditional legal thriller. Some reviewers pointed out the thinly veiled parallels to real-world cases and lauded Grisham for addressing timely issues of corporate influence in politics. Though there has been no official film adaptation of The Appeal , Grisham's novels often draw interest from filmmakers due to their cinematic quality and timely subject matter. John Grisham John Ray Grisham Jr. ( / ˈ ɡ r ɪ ʃ ə m / ; born February 8, 1955)
2112-472: The day the trial begins, a riot erupts between the KKK and the area's black residents outside the courthouse; Stump is killed by a Molotov cocktail . Believing that the black people are at fault for Stump's death, the KKK increase their attacks. As a result, the National Guard is called to Clanton to keep the peace during Carl Lee's trial. The KKK shoots at Jake one morning as he is being escorted into
2176-413: The doctor with a revelation that several previous defendants found insane in their trials are currently under his care despite his having testified to their "sanity" in their respective trials, at which point the flustered doctor blurts out "You just can't trust juries,"--thus alienating the jury he was testifying to. Jake follows this up with a captivating closing statement , ignoring Lucien's advice to use
2240-723: The ethical dilemmas faced by judges who rely on campaign funding from corporate interests. Grisham was inspired by real-life legal battles and judicial elections in the U.S., particularly the Caperton v. Massey case involving Don Blankenship and A.T. Massey Coal . In that case, Blankenship spent millions to help elect a West Virginia judge who later voted to overturn a verdict against Massey. The novel also references judicial scandals in Mississippi, where judges have faced allegations of accepting campaign donations in exchange for favorable rulings. Grisham himself has spoken out against
2304-620: The fictional town of Clanton, in the equally fictional Ford County, Mississippi. This setting is also featured in other John Grisham novels. A passage in The Chamber reveals that the events of A Time to Kill took place in 1984. Three of the characters, Jake Brigance, Harry Rex Vonner, and Lucien Wilbanks, later appear in two sequel novels, 2013's Sycamore Row and 2020's A Time for Mercy . Harry Rex Vonner and Lucien Wilbanks also appear in Grisham's 2003 novel The Last Juror , which
2368-450: The first printing. Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University and earned a Juris Doctor from the University of Mississippi School of Law in 1981. He practiced criminal law for about a decade and served in the Mississippi House of Representatives from 1983 to 1990. Grisham's first novel, A Time to Kill , was published in June 1989, four years after he began writing it. It
2432-547: The girl's father had murdered her assailants." He spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987. Grisham was a member of the Mississippi House of Representatives when he wrote the book, and much of it was written while he was staying at the Sun-n-Sand Motor Hotel in Jackson, Mississippi , a popular lodging establishment for state legislators. Grisham has also cited Harper Lee 's To Kill
2496-470: The help of the Mississippi branch of the Ku Klux Klan and its Grand Dragon , Stump Sisson. Subsequently, the KKK attempts to plant a bomb beneath Jake's porch, leading him to send his wife and daughter out of town until the trial is over. Later, the KKK attacks Jake's secretary, Ethel Twitty, and kills her frail husband, Bud. They also burn crosses in the yards of potential jurors to intimidate them. On
2560-448: The highest amount ever for an unpublished novel, paying $ 3.75 million for the rights to The Chamber . In August 1994, New Regency paid a record $ 6 million for the rights to A Time to Kill , with Grisham asking for a guarantee that Joel Schumacher , the director of The Client , would direct. Beginning with A Painted House , Grisham broadened his focus from law to the more general rural South but continued to write legal thrillers at
2624-465: The judge presiding over Carl Lee's trial, Omar "Ichabod" Noose, has been intimidated by local white supremacist element--a fact given further credence when, despite having no history of racist inclinations in his rulings, Noose refuses Jake's request for a change of venue, even though the racial make-up of Ford County virtually guarantees an all-white jury, which later becomes the case. Billy Ray's brother, Freddy, seeks revenge against Carl Lee, enlisting
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2688-485: The jury cried as she told them about having been raped and beaten. "I remember staring at the defendant and wishing I had a gun." It was then, Grisham later wrote in The New York Times , that a story was born. Over the next three years, he wrote his first book, A Time to Kill . The book was rejected by 28 publishers before Wynwood Press, an unknown publisher, agreed to give it a modest 5,000 copy printing. It
2752-459: The legal genre Jake Brigance series: Rogue Lawyer series: The Whistler series: Camino Island series: Mitch McDeere series: Stand-alones: Theodore Boone series: Collections: Uncollected short stories: A Time to Kill (Grisham novel) A Time to Kill is a 1989 legal thriller and debut novel by American author John Grisham . The novel was rejected by many publishers before Wynwood Press eventually gave it
2816-429: The perpetrators. He hitchhiked home and started thinking about college. His next work was in retail, as a sales clerk in a department store men's underwear section, which he described as "humiliating". By this time, Grisham was halfway through college. Planning to become a tax lawyer, he was soon overcome by "the complexity and lunacy" of it, deciding instead to return to his hometown as a trial lawyer. Grisham attended
2880-410: The police, allowing them to anticipate most KKK attacks. Despite the loss of his house and several setbacks at the start of the trial, Jake perseveres. He badly discredits the state's psychiatrist by establishing that he has never conceded to the insanity of any defendant in any criminal case in which he has been asked to testify, even when several other doctors have been in consensus otherwise. He traps
2944-462: The rapists. Carl Lee is determined to avenge Tonya, and while Pete and Billy Ray are being led into holding after their bond hearing, he kills both men with an M16 rifle . Carl Lee is charged with capital murder . Despite efforts to persuade Carl Lee to retain high-powered attorneys, he elects to be represented by Jake. Helping Jake are two loyal friends, disbarred attorney and mentor Lucien Wilbanks, and sleazy divorce lawyer Harry Rex Vonner. Later,
3008-443: The rate of one per year. In 2002 he once again claimed the number one book of the year with The Summons . In 2003 and 2004 he missed the number one bestseller of the year due to the success of The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown , but he once again produced two novels which ended the year in the top 5 . In 2004, The Last Juror ended the year at number four, and in 2005 he overtook The Da Vinci Code and returned to number one for
3072-563: The same time I'm quietly hoping that the books will inform them, in a subtle way, about law." He also stated that it was his daughter, Shea, who inspired him to write the Theodore Boone series. "My daughter Shea is a teacher in North Carolina and when she got her fifth grade students to read the book, three or four of them came up afterwards and said they'd like to go into the legal profession." In an October 2006 interview on
3136-428: The same, equal standard of justice and mercy. Carl Lee returns to his family and the story ends with Jake, Lucien and Harry Rex having a celebratory drink before Jake holds a press conference and leaves town to reunite with his family. Two sequel novels involving the same characters and setting have been published. The first, titled Sycamore Row , was published on October 22, 2013, and the second, A Time for Mercy ,
3200-550: The second of five children, was born in Jonesboro, Arkansas , to Wanda (née Skidmore) and John Ray Grisham. His father was a construction worker and a cotton farmer, and his mother was a homemaker. When Grisham was four years old, his family settled in Southaven, Mississippi , near Memphis, Tennessee . As a child, he wanted to be a baseball player. As noted in the foreword to Calico Joe , Grisham gave up playing baseball at
3264-414: The second-bestselling book of the year with The Pelican Brief and The Client , and from 1994 to 2000 he had the number one bestselling book every year. In 2001 Grisham did not have the bestselling book of the year, but had both the second and third books on the list with Skipping Christmas and A Painted House . In 1992, The Firm was made into a film starring Tom Cruise and Ed Harris and
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#17327943578243328-792: The state legislature, he was the vice-chairman of the Apportionment and Elections Committee and a member of several other committees. He supported Representative Ed Perry's unsuccessful bid for the House speakership in 1987. With a different speaker elected at the beginning of the 1988 legislative session, Grisham was out of favor with the new legislative leaders and assigned to more minor committee roles. Not as busy with political affairs, he devoted more time to his novel, The Firm . Grisham later reflected that if Perry had become speaker he might have been given more committee responsibilities and thus unable to write. Grisham's writing career blossomed with
3392-400: The success of his second book, The Firm , and he gave up practicing law, except for returning briefly in 1996 to represent the family of a railroad worker who was killed on the job. His official website states: "He was honoring a commitment made before he had retired from the law to become a full-time writer. Grisham successfully argued his clients' case, earning them a jury award of $ 683,500 —
3456-480: The team is assisted by liberal law student Ellen Roark, who has prior experience with death penalty cases and offers her services as a temporary clerk pro bono . Ellen appears to be interested in Jake romantically, but the married Jake resists her overtures. The team also receives some illicit behind-the-scenes help from black county sheriff Ozzie Walls, a figure beloved by the black community and also well respected by
3520-581: The top five in the US best-seller list . In November 2015, his novel Rogue Lawyer was at the top of the New York Times Fiction Best Seller for two weeks. In 2017, Grisham released two legal thrillers. Camino Island was published on June 6, 2017. The book appeared at the top of several best seller lists including USA Today , The Wall Street Journal , and The New York Times . The Rooster Bar , published on October 24, 2017,
3584-401: The white community who upholds the law by arresting Carl Lee but, as the father of two daughters of his own, privately supports Carl Lee and gives him special treatment while in jail and goes out of the way to assist Jake in any way he legally can. Carl Lee is prosecuted by Ford County's district attorney , Rufus Buckley, who hopes that the case will boost his political career. It is claimed that
3648-419: The works of John Steinbeck in particular. Through one of his father's contacts, Grisham managed to find work on a highway asphalt crew in Mississippi at age 17. It was during this time that an unfortunate incident got him "serious" about college. A fight with gunfire broke out among the crew, causing Grisham to run to a nearby restroom to find safety. He did not come out until after the police had detained
3712-435: The year with The Broker . The year 2006 marked the first time since 1990 that he did not have one of the top-selling books of the year, but he returned to number two in 2007, number one in 2008, and number two in 2009. Grisham has also written sports fiction and comedy fiction. He wrote the original screenplay for and produced the 2004 baseball movie Mickey , which starred Harry Connick Jr. In 2005, Grisham received
3776-603: Was called "his most original work yet", in The News Herald , and a “buoyant, mischievous thriller” in The New York Times . Several of Grisham's legal thrillers are set in the fictional town of Clanton, Mississippi, in the equally fictional Ford County, a northwest Mississippi town still deeply divided by racism. The first novel set in Clanton was A Time to Kill . Other stories set there include The Last Juror , The Summons , The Chamber , The Reckoning , A Time for Mercy and Sycamore Row . The stories in
3840-451: Was defending a former friend from law school who was caught in a sting thinking he was looking at adult porn but it was in reality sixteen- and seventeen-year-old minors and went on to add, "I have no sympathy for real pedophiles. God, please lock those people up. Anyone who harms a child for profit or pleasure ... Should be punished to the fullest extent of the law." The Mississippi State University Libraries , Manuscript Division, maintains
3904-554: Was later adapted into the 1996 feature film of the same name . Grisham's first bestseller , The Firm , sold more than seven million copies, and was also adapted into a 1993 feature film of the same name , starring Tom Cruise , and a 2012 TV series that continues the story ten years after the events of the film and novel. Seven of his other novels have also been adapted into films: The Chamber , The Client , A Painted House , The Pelican Brief , The Rainmaker , The Runaway Jury , and Skipping Christmas . Grisham,
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#17327943578243968-401: Was published in June 1988. The day after Grisham completed A Time to Kill , he began work on his second novel, The Firm . The Firm remained on The New York Times Best Seller list for 47 weeks, and became the seventh bestselling novel of 1991 . This would begin a streak of having one of the top 10 best selling novels of the year for nearly the next two decades. In 1992 and 1993 he had
4032-436: Was released in June 1993, grossing $ 270 million. A feature film version of The Pelican Brief starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington was released later that year and grossed $ 195 million. Following their success, Regency Enterprises paid Grisham $ 2.25 million for the rights to The Client which was released in 1994 starring Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones . Universal Pictures then commissioned Grisham with
4096-584: Was soon promoted to a fence crew for $ 1.50 an hour. He wrote about the job: "there was no future in it". At 16, Grisham took a job with a plumbing contractor but says he "never drew inspiration from that miserable work". Initially, Grisham attended Horn Lake High School, a school that was so overcrowded some classes met in a church or a gymnasium. In 1971, he transferred to Southaven High School , where he played football, basketball, and baseball. He credits his 12th grade English teacher, Frances McGuffey, for inspiring his love for reading and for introducing him to
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