John Grisham at his office in Charlottesville, Va. His new book is a sequel to The Firm, the book that turned him into a star.
Donald Johnson/The New York Times /Doubleday
Just going by numbers alone, it’s undeniable that John Grisham is a statesman of American letters. Since the beginning of his career, his goal has been focused on output.
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
“One smart decision I made way back then was to hurry up and write,” he said in an interview with NPR. He’s published 49 books, and has sold more than 400 million copies, according to his publicist. He’s been in the game for more than three decades now.
And in this tenured position in the world of books, he’s adjacent to the existential crises facing books today. He’s part of a big lawsuit against the artificial intelligence company OpenAI for copyright infringement (he said he’s not allowed to comment on it). People often ask him about his stance on books being pulled from schools and library shelves (he said it is “ridiculous” but doesn’t keep a close eye on the news).
Mostly, though, he’d rather be writing.
He’s now out with his latest, The Exchange. It’s a sequel to 1991’s The Firm, which was the book that turned Grisham into a writing star. When I asked him why, after all this time, is he revisiting The Firm, he simply said: “Well, we’re always trying to angle a way to sell more books.”
The Firm was first published when Grisham was juggling working as a lawyer and being a member of the state legislature…
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