True Grit: Young Readers Edition

The Young Readers Edition of Charles Portis's #1 New York Times bestseller, with over two million copies in print, comes complete with the full text of the classic novel, an afterword by Leonard S. Marcus, and a readers guide with discussion questions.

True Grit tells the story of Mattie Ross, who is just 14 when the coward Tom Chaney shoots down her father in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robs him of his life, his horse, and $150 in cash. Determined to avenge the killing, Mattie enlists the help of Rooster Cogburn, the meanest available US Marshal, and pursues the killer into Indian Territory.

As Mattie outdickers and outmaneuvers the hard-bitten types in her path, her vitality and resourcefulness amuse, impress, and touch the reader. What happens to Mattie, to the gang of outlaws unfortunate enough to tangle with her, to Rooster and the swaggering Texas Ranger LeBoeuf rings with the dramatic rightness of legend.

An instant bestseller and critical success upon its first publication and the basis for two highly praised, award-winning films, True Grit is an American classic through and through.

"Quite simply, an American masterpiece." --Boston Globe

True Grit is a selection of the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read Library.


Author: Charles Portis
Publisher: Amulet Books
Published: 05/17/2016
Pages: 240
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.40lbs
Size: 7.40h x 5.00w x 0.80d
ISBN13: 9781468313154
ISBN10: 1468313150
BISAC Categories:
- Juvenile Fiction | Classics
- Juvenile Fiction | Westerns
- Juvenile Fiction | Historical | General

About the Author
Charles Portis (1933-2020) lived in Arkansas, where he was born and raised. He was a graduate of the University of Arkansas, which in 2018 awarded him an honorary doctorate in Humane Letters. 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 is the author of four other novels, also available from The Overlook Press: Norwood, The Dog of the South, Masters of Atlantis, and Gringos. A selection of his writing has been collected in Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany.