True Grit

by Charles Portis

Overview

A #1 New York Times bestseller, Charles Portis’s True Grit is “an epic and a legend” (Washington Post), a story of danger and adventure in the Old West—the basis for two award-winning films, the first starring John Wayne in his only Oscar-winning role, as Marshall Rooster Cogburn, and the widely praised remake by the Coen brothers, starring Jeff Bridges.

“Quite simply, an American masterpiece.” —Boston Globe

“Charles Portis had a wonderful talent—original, quirky, exciting.” —Larry McMurtry

Charles Portis has long been acclaimed as one of America’s most enduring and incomparable literary voices, and his novels have left an indelible mark on the American canon. True Grit, his most famous novel, was first published in 1968, and has garnered critical acclaim as well as enthusiastic praise from countless passionate fans for more than 50 years.

True Grit tells the story of Mattie Ross, who is just 14 when the coward Tom Chaney shoots her father in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 in cash. Filled with an unwavering urge to avenge her father’s blood, Mattie finds and, after some tenacious finagling, enlists one-eyed Rooster Cogburn, the meanest available US Marshal, as her partner in pursuit, and they head off into Indian Territory after the killer.

True Grit is essential reading. Not just a classic Western, but an undeniable classic of American literature as eccentric, cool, funny, and unflinching as Mattie Ross herself. For fans of either the John Wayne classic or the Coen brothers’ movie, it’s a chance to relive the story of Mattie and Rooster and experience their story as it was originally told. For fans of taut, funny storytelling, it will be a joy to experience in its original form.

This edition includes an afterword by bestselling author Donna Tartt (The Secret History and The Goldfinch) and a reading group guide.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781590204597
Publisher:	The Overlook Press
Publication date:	11/05/2010
Edition description:	Movie Tie-in
Pages:	235
Sales rank:	18,991
Product dimensions:	5.30(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile:	800L (what's this?)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Charles Portis (1933–2020) lived most of his life in Arkansas, where he was born and raised. He was a graduate of the University of Arkansas, which in 2018 awarded him an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters. He served in the Marine Corps during the Korean War, was the London bureau chief of the New York Herald-Tribune, and was a writer for The New Yorker. He is the author of four other novels, also available from the Overlook Press: Norwood, The Dog of the South, Masters of Atlantis, and Gringos. A selection of his writing has been collected in Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany.

What People are Saying About This

Roald Dahl

"True Grit is the best novel to come my way in a very long time… Marvelous."

John Wayne

I loved that book. Charles Portis got a real Mark Twain feeling, the cynicism and the humor. I tried to buy the book myself.

Jonathan Lethem

Like Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn and Thomas Berger's Little Big Man, Charles Portis's True Grit captures the naïve elegance of the American voice.

From the Publisher

“Tom Wolfe, who worked with Portis as a reporter at the New York Herald-Tribune in the early 1960s called him ¦the original laconic cutup.¦ A generation of novelists since then have simply regarded him as a writers¦ writer and have made his name a sort of secret password. Soon, they¦ll no longer have him to themselves.” —Rolling Stone Magazine

¦An epic and a legend.¦ -- The Washington Post

¦Like Mark Twain¦s Huckleberry Finn and Thomas Berger¦s Little Big Man, Charles Portis¦s True Grit captures the nanve elegance of the American voice.¦ -- Jonathan Lethem

¦An instant classicè.Read it and have the most fun you¦ve had reading a novel in years, maybe decades.¦ -- Newsday

¦Skillfully constructed, a comic tour de force.¦ -- The New York Times Book Review

¦Charles Portis details the savagery of the 1870s frontier through an astonishing narrative voice: that of the 14-year- old Mattie Ross, a flinty, skeptical, Bible-thumping scourge¦ -- Wall Street Journal

¦I loved that book. Charles Portis got a real Mark Twain feeling, the cynicism and the humor. I tried to buy the book myself.¦ -- John Wayne

Editorial Reviews

Charles Portis is an original, indescribable sui generis talent . . . Rereading Portis is one of the great pure pleasures—both visceral and cerebral—available in modern American literature.

Esquire - Ron Rosenbaum

The dialogue in True Grit is exquisite.

The Week - David Mamet

Charles Portis’s True Grit captures the naive elegance of the American Voice.

Jonathan Lethem

Quite simply, an American masterpiece.

Boston Globe

Skillfully constructed, a comic tour de force.

New York Times Book Review

Charles Portis’s True Grit is a masterpiece.

Anthony Bourdain

It’s possible that True Grit is the genuine article—a book so strong that it reads as myth."

The Believer - Ed Park

Rollicking . . . a beaut narrated in the unforgettable voice of Mattie Ross . . . Portis has crazy-cool literary swagger.

Entertainment Weekly

I’ve always thought Charles Portis had a wonderful talent—original, quirky, exciting.

Larry McMurtry

How to describe the indescribable? Probably the best description I can give of True Grit is that I’ve never given it to any reader — male or female, of any age or sensibility — who didn’t enjoy it.

Donna Tartt

How to describe the indescribable? Probably the best description I can give of True Grit is that I’ve never given it to any reader — male or female, of any age or sensibility — who didn’t enjoy it.” —Donna Tartt, New York Times Book Review

“Skillfully constructed, a comic tour de force.”—New York Times Book Review

“Quite simply, an American masterpiece.”—Boston Globe

“Rollicking . . . a beaut narrated in the unforgettable voice of Mattie Ross . . . Portis has crazy-cool literary swagger.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Charles Portis is an original, indescribable sui generis talent . . . Rereading Portis is one of the great pure pleasures—both visceral and cerebral—available in modern American literature.”—Ron Rosenbaum, Esquire

“It’s possible that True Grit is the genuine article—a book so strong that it reads as myth."—Ed Park, The Believer

“Charles Portis’s True Grit is a masterpiece.”—Anthony Bourdain, New York Times Book Review

“The dialogue in True Grit is exquisite.”—David Mamet, The Week

“I’ve always thought Charles Portis had a wonderful talent—original, quirky, exciting.”—Larry McMurtry

“An epic and a legend.”—Washington Post

“Charles Portis’s True Grit captures the naive elegance of the American Voice.”—Jonathan Lethem

From the Publisher

An epic and a legend.

Washington Post

How to describe the indescribable? Probably the best description I can give of True Grit is that I’ve never given it to any reader — male or female, of any age or sensibility — who didn’t enjoy it.

New York Times Book Review - Donna Tartt

"True Grit is the best novel to come my way in a very long time… Marvelous."

Roald Dahl

"Like Twain, Portis respects his young narrator as a human being with a fully developed moral sensibility, even when the adults in the novel don't."

Los Angeles Times

“Portis has made an epic and a legend. Mattie Ross should soon join the pantheon of America’s legendary figures such as Kit Carson, Wyatt Earp, and Jesse James.

The Washington Post

An instant classic....Read it and have the most fun you've had reading a novel in years, maybe decades.

Newsday

Skillfully constructed, a comic tour de force.

The New York Times Book Review