Charles Portis has long been acclaimed as one of America's foremost comic writers. True Grit is his most famous novel—first published in 1968, and the basis for the movie of the same name starring John Wayne. It tells the story of Mattie Ross, who is just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name of Tom Chaney shoots her father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 in cash money. Mattie leaves home to avenge her father's blood. With the one-eyed Rooster Cogburn, the meanest available U.S. Marshal, by her side, Mattie pursues the homicide into Indian Territory.
True Grit is eccentric, cool, straight, and unflinching, like Mattie herself. From a writer of true cult status, this is an American classic through and through.
Editorial Reviews
"A beautiful, funny, gripping, story, polished to perfection...True Grit is true genius." —Book Week
"An epic and a legend." —Washington Post
"A perfect novel." —Boston Globe
"An instant classic….Read it and have the most fun you’ve had reading a novel in years, maybe decades." —Newsday
About the Author
Charles Portis lives in Arkansas, where he was born and educated. 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.
