Scott Turow Author Biographies

Scott Turow was born on April 12, 1949 in Chicago, Illinois. He said that he had wanted to write since he was 17 years old. He attended Amherst College where he graduated in 1970. Scott won a scholarship to attend Stanford College Writing Center where he graduated and began teaching creative writing from 1972 to 1975. From 1975 to 1978 he attended Harvard Law School.

He says that he wanted to write and practice law when he realized he was not going to be able to support himself as a writer. During his first year at Harvard, he was commissioned to write a book on his experiences as a first year law student. One L is the published outcome.

Scott married Annette, a painter, in 1971. They have three children. Scott and Annette divorced in 2008.

From 1978 to 1986, Scott Turow was an Assistant US Attorney in Chicago where he prosecuted several high profile cases.

Besides his books, Scott has published many articles including book reviews and a treatise on why he does not believe in the death penalty. In 2003 his book, Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer’s Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty, was published.

Scott Turow is a partner in a large national law firm, Sonnenshein, Nath and Rosenthal. He has worked pro bono cases especially for those wrongfully convicted, such as Alejandro Hernandez. Mr. Hernandez was accused and convicted of a murder and spent 11 years on death row before Scott won his release in 1996. He was also appointed, by then Governor George Ryan, to the commission of capital punishment reform.

Scott is a trustee at Amherst College. He was also the president of the Author’s Guild for a year and still serves on the board. He is very active in charitable causes.

So far three of Scott Turow’s books have been made into Movies: Presumed Innocent (1990), The Burden of Proof (1992) and Reversible Errors (2004).

Scott Turow Books:
Presumed Innocent(1987)
The Burden of Proof (1990)
Pleading Guilty (1993)
The Laws of Our Fathers (1996)
Personal Injuries (1999)
Reversible Errors (2002)
Ordinary Heroes (2005)
Limitations(2006)

Nonfiction:
One L (1977)
Ultimate Punishment: A Lawyer's Reflections on Dealing with the Death Penalty(2003)

John Grisham Author Biographies

John Grisham was born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro Arkansas to a cotton farmer and an itinerant construction worker father and a mother who was a homemaker.  As a child, he dreamed of being a professional baseball player, but it was not to be.  He attended Mississippi State University where he majored in accounting.  He graduated with a law degree from University of Mississippi in 1981.


 John married Renee Jones in 1981 and they have two children, Ty and Shea. He practiced criminal and civil law in Southaven, Mississippi for 10 years.  He was also a State Representative of Mississippi from 1983 until 1990.  They make a farm near Oxford, Mississippi and a plantation near Charlottesville, Virginia there home.

 John published his first book, “A Time to Kill”, in 1989. He said that it took him three years to write.  He would get up early in the morning to write before going to work at his law office.
In 1994 he became the publisher of a magazine, The Oxford American.  He helped save this struggling magazine from financial ruin.
 
After his second book, “The Firm”, was published and Paramount bought the movies rights for the book, John retired from law and took up writing full time.  He has generally published one book per year ever since.  About his books, he says that he builds fiction on top of facts.

He became an advocate for the abolishment of the death penalty while researching for his book, “The Chamber”.  He does not believe in state sanctioned killings.  He believes that it is morally wrong and there are too many individuals that are wrongly accused.   He wrote about such a case in “An Innocent Man, A true Story”.  This non-fiction, murder mystery and legal thriller, tells the story of the botched investigation, trial and wrongful conviction of Ron Williamson from Ada, Oklahoma.  He wants to make people question the death penalty.

John’s books have been translated into over 29 languages and there are over 245 million books in print worldwide.  So far eleven of his works have been made into movies.  He also wrote the original screenplay, “Mickey”, and served as producer.  The movie hit the screen in 2004 and starred Harry Connick, Jr. The film, “The Gingerbread Man” was based on one of John Grisham’s short stories.

John writes about six months a year and, when not writing, he supports many charitable causes.  He has helped raise 8.8 Million dollars for Gulf Coast Relief, following the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.  He also serves as the local Little League Commissioner.  He is also a board member of The Innocence Project.  This organization encourages the use of  DNA testing on death row inmates to determine innocence.

Bibliography:

Fiction:
A Time to Kill: A Novel(1989)
The Firm (1991)
The Pelican Brief (1992)
The Client (1993)
The Chamber(1994)
The Rainmaker (1995)
The Runaway Jury (1996)
The Partner (1997)
The Street Lawyer (1998)
The Testament (1999)
The Brethren (2000)
A Painted House (2001)
Skipping Christmas (2001)
The Summons (2002)
The King of Torts (2003)
Bleachers (2003)
The Last Juror (2004)
The Broker (2005)
Playing for Pizza (2007)
The Appeal (2008)
The Associate(2009)
Ford County: Stories(2009)


Non-Fiction:
The Innocent Man(2006)

Films:
Mickey (2004)
The Gingerbread Man (2004)