BiographyJohn Grisham was born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas. He was raised in a family of five children. During his youth, he moved around a lot because his father was a construction worker. They lived in many different places, for example in Crenshaw, Mississippi. Eventually, the Grisham family settled in Southaven, a small town outside of Memphis, when he was twelve years old, and then he began studying at Southaven High School. During his school years, he was an athlete and he wanted to play professional football or baseball. This interest led him to attend Northwest Mississippi Junior College in 1973. At Northwest, he played baseball for a year and he really didn't care about his grades, he just wanted to play baseball. Grisham moved to Delta State University after a year at Northwest to improve his baseball skills. At Delta State University, he discovered that he really wasn't cut out to be a baseball player, so he decided to focus on his studies, something he had never done before. So he moved again, this time to Mississippi State University (1975). John Grisham really liked college. Since he could no longer become a professional baseball player, he now considered becoming a tax lawyer. Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University in 1977. After studying at Mississippi State University, he attended law school at the University of Mississippi, graduating in 1981. The same year he After graduating from law school, he married Renee Jones. John Grisham was now a lawyer and obtained an office in Southaven where he practiced criminal and civil law. He was also politically active during this time, and in 1983 he was elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives. During his time at Mississippi State University, he had started two books, but neither of them was ever finished. In 1984, he began writing a third. This time he finished it. The original title of the book was Deathknell, but the publisher didn't like that and so changed it to A Time to Kill. In April 1987, three agents called and the following year, in 1988, the book was sold to Wynwood Press. A year after its publication, 5,000 copies were printed. During these years he wrote his second book, The Firm, which was completed in 1988.