True Grit
True Grit is Charles Portis' most famous novel--first published in 1968. 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.
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What you might want to know about True Grit
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Old Mattie Ross of near Dardanelle, Arkansas tells the story of the winter she was fourteen and her father was shot dead by a hired man named Tom Chaney near Fort Smith.
Yes, twice. The 1969 version starred John Wayne, who won his only Academy Award for the role. The 2010 Coen Brothers adaptation with Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld was nominated for ten Oscars.
No, the novel is fiction. Charles Portis drew on the rough-and-tumble world of post-Civil War Arkansas and Indian Territory, but Mattie Ross, Rooster Cogburn, and LaBoeuf are invented characters.
The novel was a National Book Award finalist in 1969 and is widely considered one of the great American Western novels. The 1969 film won John Wayne the Best Actor Oscar.
The book is violent in a frontier way, with shootings, hangings, and a notorious snake pit scene. The tone is dry and matter-of-fact rather than gory.
True Grit was written by Charles Portis, published in 1968 by Abrams, Inc..
True Grit is 215 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, True Grit takes most readers 3 to 5 hours to finish.
True Grit is a standalone novel by Charles Portis, not part of a series.
True Grit is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.