“The action—and what action!—begins on page 1, as Mattie Ross, a fourteen-year-old girl from Dardanelle, Arkansas, sets out in the winter of eighteen seventy-something to avenge her Daddy, treacherously shot to death by a no-good drunken outlaw. Since not even Mattie (who is no self-doubter) would ride into Indian Territory alone, she ‘convinces’ one-eyed ‘Rooster’ Cogburn, the meanest available U.S. Marshal, to tag along with her.
As Mattie outdickers and outmaneuvers the hard-bitten types whose first reaction is ‘Run home, little britches, your mamma wants you,’ as her performance under fire makes them eat their words, her indestructible vitality and harsh innocence by turns amuse, horrify and touch the reader. What happens—to Rooster, to Mattie, to the gang of outlaws unfortunate enough to tangle with her—rings with the dramatic rightness of legend and the marvelous overtones, the continual surprises of personality.” (from the flap copy)
A Saturday Evening Post serial story turned novel turned blockbuster film two times over, Charles Portis’s True Grit is one of the pillars of the Western genre as it lives on in American culture and the popular consciousness.
- Title: True Grit
- Author: Charles Portis
- Publisher: Simon and Schuster
- Place: New York
- Year: 1968
- Edition: 1st Edition
- Length: 224pp
- Dimensions: 6” x 8.5” x 1”
- Condition: The dustjacket is in fine condition—somewhat faded and soiled, worn around the hinges and edges, some foxing. Some of the tears and missing sections along the edges have been repaired with tape and cardstock. The blue boards are in very good condition, only a small amount of wear on the corners. The binding is tight. The first front endpaper is missing. The pages are clean—no folds, tears, or extraneous marks.