Genre: Historical Fiction
Length: 240 pages
Audiobook Length: 11 hours and 15 minutes
First Published: 2021
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Publisher’s Description
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 fifty years. It was the basis for two award-winning films, including the wildly praised remake by the Coen brothers, selected by the National Endowment for the Arts for the Big Read Library, and was a #1 New York Times bestseller.
True Grit tells the story of Mattie Ross, who is just fourteen when the coward Tom Chaney shoots her father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 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 U.S. Marshal, as her partner in pursuit, and they head off into Indian Territory after the killer.
Quotes from True Grit
You must pay for everything in this world one way and another. There is nothing free except the Grace of God. You cannot earn that or deserve it.
That’s bold talk for a one-eyed fat man.
Nothing I like to do pays well.
Time just gets away from us.
We must each of us bear our own misfortunes.
Movie Trailer for True Grit (1969)
Movie Trailer for True Grit (2010)
About Charles Portis
Charles Portis was an American author of five novels: True Grit, Norwood, The Dog of the South, Masters of Atlantis, and Gringos. 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 died in 2020 at the age of 86.
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