True Grit

The landmark anniversary edition of the #1 New York Times bestselling classic novel, “an epic and a legend” (The Washington Post)

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 as a National Endowment for the Arts 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.

With a new introduction by Roy Blount Jr., critical essays by Jacquelyn Mitchard and Jay Jennings, and an afterword by Donna Tartt, this 50th anniversary edition cheers and celebrates Charles Portis and True Grit, both true American classics as eccentric, cool, funny, and unflinching as Mattie Ross herself.