Synopses & Reviews
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. 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. is eccentric, cool, straight, and unflinching, like Mattie herself. From a writer of true status, this is an American classic through and through. This mass-market edition includes an afterword by award-winning Donna Tartt, author of and
Review
“A wonderful book.... That’s really what the Coens are referencing, and that’s what I’m doing as well”
—Jeff Bridges
“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 naïve elegance of the American voice.”
—Jonathan Lethem
“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
“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
“Mattie Ross is an authentic heroine––lean, mean, articulate and downright inspirational”
—The Washington Times .
Synopsis
The #1 New York Times bestselling classic frontier adventure novel that inspired two award-winning films True Grit 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. 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 status, this is an American classic through and through. This mass-market edition includes an afterword by award-winning Donna Tartt, author of The Little Friend and The Secret History.
Synopsis
Charles Portis has long been acclaimed as one of America's foremost writers. is the basis for two movies, the 1969 classic starring John Wayne and the Academy Award® winning 2010 version starring Jeff Bridges and written and directed by the Coen brothers.
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.