Arkansas

I saw the original movie at the Little Rock Air Force Base theater in 1969, I think. I have yet to see the remake. If you went to school in Arkansas, you learned that Fort Smith was the last outpost of the Marshal Service, otherwise known as The United States, before you hit the Indian Territories (aka Oklahoma). "Hangin' Judge' Isaac C. Parker presided from his courthouse in Fort Smith, where he oversaw the hanging of more than 70 criminals captured in the Indian Territories. At least that's what the Arkansas history book, fed to all us grade-school students, claimed. Anyway, here's the blurb.

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 in cash. Mattie leaves home to avenge her father's blood. With one-eyed Rooster Cogburn, the meanest available U.S. Marshal, by her side, Mattie pursues the killer into Indian Territory. True Grit is eccentric, cool, straight, and unflinching, like Mattie herself. From a writer of true status, this is an American classic...

#1 New York Times bestseller
“An epic and a legend” — Washington Post
“Quite simply, an American masterpiece.” — Boston Globe
“The dialogue in True Grit is exquisite.” —David Mamet
“Charles Portis had a wonderful talent—original, quirky, exciting.” —Larry McMurtry

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.

This story of danger and adventure in the old west became the basis for two award-winning films, the first starring John Wayne, in his only Oscar-winning role, as Marshall Rooster Cogburn, and the widely praised remake by the Coen brothers, starring Jeff Bridges.

True Grit is essential reading. Not just a classic Western, but an undeniable classic of American literature as eccentric, cool, funny, and unflinching as Mattie Ross herself. For fans of either the John Wayne classic or the more recent Coen brothers’ movie, it’s a chance to relive the story of Mattie and Rooster and experience their story as it was originally told. For fans of taut, funny storytelling, it will be a joy to experience in its original form.
This edition includes an afterword by bestselling author Donna Tartt ( The Secret History and The Goldfinch )

Review
“How to describe the indescribable? Probably the best description I can give of True Grit is that I’ve never given it to any reader — male or female, of any age or sensibility — who didn’t enjoy it.” ― Donna Tartt , New York Times Book Review
“Skillfully constructed, a comic tour de force.”―New York Times Book Review
“Quite simply, an American masterpiece.”―Boston Globe
“Rollicking . . . a beaut narrated in the unforgettable voice of Mattie Ross . . . Portis has crazy-cool literary swagger.”―Entertainment Weekly
“Charles Portis is an original, indescribable sui generis talent . . . Rereading Portis is one of the great pure pleasures—both visceral and cerebral—available in modern American literature.”― Ron Rosenbaum , Esquire
“It’s possible that True Grit is the genuine article—a book so strong that it reads as myth."― Ed Park , The Believer
“Charles Portis’s True Grit is a masterpiece.”― Anthony Bourdain , New York Times Book Review
“The dialogue in True Grit is exquisite.”― David Mamet , The Week
“I’ve always thought Charles Portis had a wonderful talent—original, quirky, exciting.”―Larry McMurtry
“An epic and a legend.”―Washington Post
“Charles Portis’s True Grit captures the naive elegance of the American Voice.”―Jonathan Lethem

About the Author
Charles Portis (b. December 28, 1933, d. February 17, 2020) lived in Arkansas, where he was born and educated. 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 was the author of five novels: Norwood , The Dog of the South , Masters of Atlantis , True Grit , and Gringos.