A Time to Kill
A Time to Kill is a 1989 legal thriller and debut novel by American author John Grisham. The novel was rejected by many publishers before Wynwood Press eventually gave it a 5,000-copy printing. When Doubleday published The Firm, Wynwood released a trade paperback of A Time to Kill, which became a bestseller. Dell published the mass market paperback months after the success of The Firm, bringing Grisham to widespread popularity among readers. Doubleday eventually took over the contract for A Time to Kill and released a special hardcover edition.
Stats for nerds
1recommend
3mentions
3people
2010–2021years
33% recommend67% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Not American but recently listened to the Audible edition of John Grisham's 'A Time to Kill' and the word is used dozens if not hundreds of times. Grating to hear but added to the story about race in a way that an alternative could not.
- Seems like John Grisham got a few basic plot points for A Time to Kill from the Maxwell story.
- It took John Grisham three years (1984-1987) to write "A Time To Kill", and it wasn't published until 1989 because he couldn't find a publisher. Fast forward to 2010 -- in an op-ed to the NY Times, he says that writing is the most difficult and frustrating job he has ever had. Isn't that astonishing? Grisham, arguably one of the most accomplished fiction writers of the past three decades, says writing is hard. Harder than being a lawyer who primarily handles indigent cases, being on an asphalt crew in summer, selling men's underwear, and being a politician, in fact.
Other than that, the key point I noted was that writing was not his childhood dream, a practiced hobby, or even a well-researched attempt at changing careers. It was something he decided to do one day and found to be incredibly difficult, but kept at it.. ultimately becoming a monumental success.
