Recounting a Princeton Heist

JOHN GRISHAM returned to the scene of his crime. On Oct. 25, the prolific lawyer-turned-writer of legal thrillers discussed his craft with English professor Maria DiBattista in Richardson Auditorium — a short walk from Firestone Library, the setting of the daring fictional heist described in his new novel Camino Island. In the book, thieves break into a security vault and get away with the manuscripts of F. Scott Fitzgerald 1917’s five novels. Grisham didn’t visit the University to research details, but during his October visit — sponsored by the Friends of the Princeton University Library — he was given a library tour and saw the Fitzgerald papers first-hand. “It was very moving because the papers are 100 years old,” he said, “and you can see how Fitzgerald revised and revised and crossed out whole pages of his work.”