John Grisham is a southern man born and raised. Born in Jonesboro, Arkansas, in 1955 Grisham was raised southern Baptist. Grisham's family roots run deep in the south, so deep in fact that he is actually a distant cousin to Bill Clinton (Pringle 1). He was one of five siblings that are in his family. Grisham's family lived on a rather short income having seven people and his father being a construction worker. When he was 12 he and his family moved to Southaven, Mississippi. Having moved around a lot as a child Grisham remembers the first thing his family did when moving into town was visiting the local church, and they would also go to the library to get their library cards. Once is Mississippi his family settled down and Grisham finished the rest of his school. Grisham's writing was influenced so much by his life experiences that his famous legal thrillers were due to the fact he was a lawyer before he became a famous novelist. Due to the advanced knowledge he has on the subjects he writes about it is no wonder that John Grisham is one of the greatest novelist that the twentieth century has produced. .
Grisham's life was fairly normal growing up, and it has stayed that way throughout his life and career. In middle school Grisham's grades were average, but most of his attention was focused towards baseball. Grisham did well all the way through school until, ironically, he got a D in freshman English in college (Pringle 1). Grisham graduated from Mississippi State University majoring in Accounting. From there he went to law school at the University of Mississippi aspiring to be a tax attorney. After he took is first class towards becoming a tax attorney he decided that the numbers were too difficult, and he then decided to try criminal law. He graduated from the University of Mississippi and passed the bar in 1981. Once out of school he married his wife Renee, and began practicing law in Southaven while Renee could finish up the rest of her school.