John Ray Grisham Jr. is an American novelist, lawyer, and former member of the Mississippi House of Representatives, renowned for his best-selling legal thrillers. According to the American Academy of Achievement, Grisham has penned 37 consecutive number-one fiction bestsellers, with his books selling over 300 million copies worldwide. Alongside Tom Clancy and J. K. Rowling, Grisham is one of only three anglophone authors to have sold two million copies on 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 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 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.

In addition to his writing, Grisham serves on the board of directors of the Innocence Project and Centurion Ministries, both national organizations dedicated to exonerating wrongfully convicted individuals. His fiction often explores profound issues within the criminal justice system. He resides on a farm in central Virginia.