True Grit (novel)
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Front cover of the 1968 Simon & Schuster hardback 1st edition of True Grit by Charles Portis.
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| Author | Charles Portis |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Western |
| Publisher | Simon & Schuster |
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Publication date
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1968 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover) (paperback) |
| Pages | 215 |
True Grit is a 1968 novel by Charles Portis that was first published as a 1968 serial in The Saturday Evening Post. The novel is told from the perspective of a woman named Mattie Ross, who recounts the time when she was 14 and sought retribution for the murder of her father by a scoundrel named Tom Chaney. It is considered by some critics to be "one of the great American novels."
The novel was adapted for the screenplay of the 1969 film True Grit starring Kim Darby as Mattie Ross and John Wayne as Rooster Cogburn. In 2010, Joel and Ethan Coen wrote and directed another film adaption of the same name, which starred Hailee Steinfeld as Mattie Ross and Jeff Bridges as Rooster Cogburn.
In November 2010, The Overlook Press published a movie tie-in edition of True Grit.
The novel is narrated by Mattie Ross, churchgoing elderly spinster distinguished by intelligence, independence, and strength of mind. She recounts the story of her adventures many years earlier, at 14, when she undertook a quest to avenge her father's death at the hands of a drifter named Tom Chaney. She is joined on her quest by Marshal Reuben J. "Rooster" Cogburn and a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf (pronounced "La-beef").
As Mattie's tale begins, Chaney is employed on the Ross's family farm in West-Central Arkansas, near the town of Dardanelle in Yell County. Chaney is not adept as a farmhand, and Mattie has only scorn for him, referring to him as "trash" and noting that her kind-hearted father Frank only hired him out of pity. One day, Frank Ross and Chaney go to Fort Smith to buy some horses. Ross takes $250 with him to pay for the horses, along with two gold pieces that he always carried, but he ends up spending only $100 on the horses. Later, Ross tries to intervene in a barroom confrontation involving Chaney. Chaney kills him, robs the body of the remaining $150 and two gold pieces, and flees into Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) on his horse.
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