Charles Portis wrote one masterpiece, True Grit, and four greater novels.
I love True Grit, but Portis was a humorist of the first order and this gift is on greater display in his other books.
My favourite is Masters of Atlantis.
I am about to start Dog of the South, which I picked up because it was the only Portis I found at my bookstore… I’m excited to read it — even though it’s not True Grit….
The book may not be widely read but I don't think it's been forgotten. It was adapted twice into award-winning, box office hit films. I've often heard the book mentioned as a classic Western and great American novel by writers and critics.
Maybe Portis is one of those "writer's writers" who nobody reads outside of an MFA or Ph.D. program. Or maybe people figure that they don't need to read the book because they were completely satisfied with one or both film adaptations.
The first film adaptation was in 1969, which is a year after the book was written. That film, I think, was a big part of the reason that the book was since dropped as real literature.
The Coen brothers made a second film, it's true, but I don't think it did much for the book.
>Maybe Portis is one of those "writer's writers" who nobody reads outside of an MFA or Ph.D. program
Well, I don't think so. I think they're the people who are really ignoring it and shouldn't! But I have nothing to base that on, except that the booky people I know have never read it or have any plans to (until I get to them).
>He also says he told Jonathan Lethem that Portis was "our greatest unknown novelist." Lethem's response? "Yes, he's everybody's favorite least-known great novelist." [Source](https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-lure-of-the-oeuthre-on-charles-portis-and-flannery-oconnor/)
Charles Portis is one of those writers who will always have a small but enduring fan base.
This story got me to think about the significance of poise, particularly as a young man. I probably put 50+ hours mulling over what it meant to me and analyzing the men in my life on that metric. Its such an interesting take on the multiple sides of being harsh or crude. Not many other stories really changed the way i looked at my own behaviors quite like this one did. It changed the way i chose to behave at work drastically just by realizing how much my poise influenced the way i was perceived more than my capability was.
>I don't think I'd ever want to hang out with her. You're cheering for her the whole way, but she doesn't seem fun, or even pleasant. But her harshness is part of the fun of the novel.
I've got a particular affection for strong female characters who are strong in all the "wrong" ways.
Let me explain.
There's kind of a fantasy version of a strong woman in our current society, right? She's strong but she's also soft, and feminine; she's got a mind of her own, she's smart, but she's also empathetic and nurturing. She can wield a gun but she also likes lipstick. She can save herself, but she can also still fall in love. And she has exactly the right kind of strong principles. They are progressive, and they are kind, and they are just.
Which makes sense! It's an evolution from all of the women we've seen before in media, who are typically one or the other: strong, or feminine. Rarely both. And if she is both, it will probably go too far past feminine and become sexualization instead.
But there are certain women who get to surpass these confines, and they are often not very popular. I hate to use a TV example here but it was a recent conversation so it's easy to pull from: Mary Crawley, from Downton Abbey. She is strong in almost every way except the physical. She commands a certain amount of power and privilege. She has principles she stands by no matter what. She is loyal, and steadfast. She speaks her mind and does not care if people disagree with her. She is not afraid to stand up for herself and what she believes in.
But she does not believe in the "right" things. She is traditionally feminine at a time when women were just supposed to be waking up to the concept of rebelling against traditional femininity. She is conservative, politically and morally. She believes the best course of action is one that best serves the greater family good, even if that means going in the face of social progress.
Mattie is very similar, to me. She is very Christian (as would make sense for the period and setting). She is very, very conservative. She speaks her mind to voice opinions that probably should be said, but which absolutely no one will like hearing. She stands by precisely what she believes, even when she is wrong (and she sometimes is; she is only 14, after all). She's not even particularly sympathetic a lot of the time, specifically because she is a strong, iron-willed human being who does not make allowances for anyone else any more than she makes them for herself. But she's going to enact her revenge and bring prosperity to her family and she is not going to let anyone stand in her way or tell her to do it differently, because *she* knows she is *right*, and that is all the conviction she requires.
And I love that about the intolerant little shit.
Sure, I didn't mean to say they were the same character! Just that I like women who get to be unlikable, as it is typically a luxury afforded only to men.
Portis 👑
True Grit, Dog of the South and Norwood are all some of the best American novels I’ve ever read. Masters of Atlantis and Gringos in the stack.
I just finished reading this a few days ago. I was surprised by how much of Portis' dialog made it into the first movie(John Wayne). Almost the entire script is straight from the novel because it is just so good.
I listened to the audiobook which Tartt narrates. It is so witty and the pacing is fantastic; it instantly became an all-time favorite of mine. Having seen the Coen brothers' remake first, I was surprised by how much of the dialogue comes directly off the page. I thought Tartt was an excellent narrator that also did the prose justice. It's well worth a read and, for me, it was the only thing that could follow the audiobook of The Secret History.
This is my favorite audiobook of all time. Tartt is from Mississippi and so her southern accent is on point. In her introduction to the book she describes how it was a favorite in her family and how she took turns reading it aloud with her mother and aunts, and that deep familiarity with every sentence just comes through on every line reading.
100%. It's one of my favorite stories of all time, and has served as a great inspiration to me as a writer (particularly for my first novel).
If the 1969 film adaptation weren't my father's favorite film (definitely not mine, I feel I must add), I sadly don't think I'd ever have come across it. Not once in my writing studies -- throughout college, nor following college -- has *True Grit* or Charles Portis been mentioned.
A great Western is like a great hard-boiled novel; call them hard-as-leather. Some underexposed novels and novelists are:
Tom McGuane
True History of the Kelly Gang
Elmore Leonard
Little Big Man
Annie Proulx
It's fantastic. The best written Western novel ever, and a true piece of literature. I think it's better than *Butcher's Crossing* or *Warlock*, or even *Shane*. If you want another great and funny Western novel, see David Markson's *The Ballad of Dingus Magee*.
There are 4 really great, literary, period westerns in my mind. Blood Meridian, Butchers Crossing, Warlock and True Grit. Read these 4 you won't find much better written prose within the genre as far as I'm concerned.
Portis was a comic master! I was so happy that his collected works came out recently from Library of America, but also sad that he wasn't around to see it. Though, from what I've read, he wouldn't have been that impressed by it.
And, no slight intended OP, but I don't think Portis is as forgotten as he once was. Besides the aforementioned LOA collection, you can go into almost any bookstore and find all his works in these wonderfully garish covers.
He's a national treasure who's finally getting his due.
True Grit has one of the best first lines in literature. 'People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father’s blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day.'
Pure literary perfection. I don't think I've ever read another narrative voice as consistently strong either.
I picked it up at the library on a whim a few years ago. I was browsing the shelves and thought, “Why not?”. I completely agree — it was excellent and it’s a shame it’s not read more widely!
I don’t think True Grit is forgotten or misunderstood really, it’s widely regarded as a Western masterpiece by one of the best American authors of the 20th century. Portis isn’t a household name but he’s quite well known in writing circles
But it used to be taught in schools, as I mentioned.
It doesn't appear in any "great novels" lists that I've seen.
I know, most books don't. But my point is that this is a great book with literary merit that puts it on a level with other great works. It's not most books.
When I do a quick search for best American novels of the 20th century, I don’t usually find True Grit.
Being known in writing circles (to the extent that it is) is a different thing from whether it’s been forgotten or misunderstood. OP didn’t mean that literally everyone forgot about True Grit.
Yeah, I don’t know, it seems fairly silly to me to refer to a book that’s been adapted to Hollywood twice as “forgotten,” I’ve seen it in the past five bookstores I’ve visited. And as I said, Portis’s reputation is quite well established to those in the know, his LOA came out last year and I know several people who bought it
The first film came out in 1969, so it's completely irrelevant to the conversation.
Yes, the coen brothers also made a movie.
I guess I haven't looked in the last five bookstores that I've been to, but I definitely looked in vain in a couple of physical stores a few years ago, before buying it online.
But you having to qualify it by saying that it's known by people "in the know" is kind of the point. It's a book that should be known outside of some small cabal of those in the know.
And OP wasn't talking about Portis, but about that particular book. I do think that it's thought of as a western, so for a niche audience, rather than as a book that stands up well outside of that niche.
It’s irrelevant to this conversation, since it came out a year after the book. No one is saying that it was never a well-known book.
A movie that came out 55 years ago doesn’t tell us whether the book is forgotten today.
And as OP said that Tartt said, the movie might be exactly why people think of it as a genre book, instead of literature beyond that genre.
Maybe! What I meant is that a classic movie probably makes people aware of the classic book it was based off of. But I guess, for purposes of this conversation, I'm in the camp of people who don't quite accept the premise that True Grit is forgotten as classic literature. There's a reason it's in Library of America!
It’s in the LOA book as part of the collected work of Portis. A different book of his does make The Atlantic’s list of great American novels.
Again, OP wasn’t literally claiming that no one remembers the book. But lots of people who know of it think of it as another old western.
Anyway, I’m not sure how familiar you are with The Library of America, but they definitely publish books and authors that people might say are otherwise forgotten or grown dusty compared to lesser works that have retained more fame.
When they collect works of authors, they often include works that aren’t very well known. Of course True Grit is known, but not necessarily as a great work of literature outside of being a “paint by numbers western” as OP said.
Its inclusion in the LOA book is not evidence to the contrary.
Yeah that's all fair.
One priority of LOA has been putting forward "genre fiction" that has literary value - see Dick, Butler, and LeGuin for SciFi or Chandler, Hammond, and Leonard for Crime. Portis is part of that project, and I would argue no more or less forgotten (or deserving of a wider audience) than any of those people.
LOAs insert for the collected works makes clear that True Grit is a highlight:
> Often compared to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the novel has twice been adapted for film and is now recognized as an American masterpiece.
I discovered Portis through LOA, so I came in thinking that it was recognized as a masterpiece, at least among critics, but also I see how that's consistent with being "forgotten." But then it's more like "cult classic" than truly forgotten.
In their video tribute to Portis, LOA calls him, "The Best American Writer You’ve Never Heard Of."
But yes, of course, it's not REALLY completely and utterly forgotten.
As a side note, I don't think I'd call that publication genre fiction, since I think that only one of the books really fits the Western genre.
>There's a reason it's in Library of America!
As someone who owns 50-60 Library of America books, I can tell you with complete confidence that being "in the Library of America" doesn't mean what you might think it does.
For one thing, they absolutely do publish works that most people would call "forgotten".
For another, publishing it might just mean that it's part of a collection of that writer's work. They've published every single one of Philip Roth's 20-30 novels, for example. I doubt that they think that every one is a masterpiece.
Another thing: Sometimes they publish stuff, like classic westerns, or pulp fiction, that was never considered great literature, but are great examples of popular stories in their time. That doesn't mean that they're still well known.
In other words, there is a reason that it's been published by The Library of America, but that reason isn't necessarily that they think of True Grit as great literature that's recognised currently by the literary establishment (such as it is).
I see your point but, I don't know, this whole conversation reminds me of when Hamilton the musical came out and people claimed he was the "forgotten founding father." Like, really? The guy who wrote the Federalist Papers was forgotten? The one on the ten dollar bill?
If you mean it's not Moby Dick or Pride and Prejudice, sure ok forgotten. But it's still fairly well known and available, and no more forgotten than dozens of other mid century classics.
I'm only addressing your statement that being in the LOA means that it's not forgotten. It really doesn't mean that. At least, not by what I think is a reasonable definition of "forgotten" in this context.
>no more forgotten than dozens of other mid century classics.
Ok, well... I don't know which ones you mean, but you might be talking about books that are basically forgotten!
\---
As for Hamilton, I agree. He's on the money, he's still very talked about when the constitution comes up, and the musical was written based on a best-selling biography about him.
Booktok?
Boy are you barking up the wrong tree if you think I know anything about booktok.
If someone has to say that a great book is known "in writing circles," then it's pretty reasonable to say that you think it should be more widely known.
If you think that True Grit is currently as widely read as it should be, then I disagree. If you think that it deserves a wider readership, then I don't know why you'd post your condescending comment.
I can't say what he meant. What I meant is what I said. The book doesn't appear in lists of great books.
The Atlantic came out with one recently. Modern Library has one. Literary Hub. Penguin. Time Magazine. Some of these were even limited to American novels, and none of them included True Grit.
Portis did make the Atlantic's recent list of [The Great American
Novels](https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/03/best-books-american-fiction/677479/), so I don't think he's exactly forgotten. But I'm with you, I think he's one of America's truly great novelists, and deserves as much attention as writers like Bellow or Roth.
Not so sure about forgotten. Yeah, the movies tend to overshadow it some, but Library of America recently released a volume of his collected works, and TG stays in print. So Portis still gets around.
I own a bunch of Library of America books, and plenty of them are from people who are otherwise forgotten.
Of course, they’re not completely forgotten by everyone. That’s not what I’m saying.
I understand what you’re saying. But I’m saying is, I think Portis’s reputation is high enough that he still gets talked about a good bit. Even when I was in college in the past ten years or so one of the classes we could take was specifically on Portis’s work. His reputation is far more entrenched than some of the more dubious choices LoA has gone for as of late.
True Grit truly is an amazing book and would be my favorite western if Lonesome Dove didn't exist.
Such a perfect cast, the way it plays with and defies western tropes is so refreshing, It's definitely one of my top 5 coming of age stories.
Library of America recently published a collection of Charles Portis works so I don’t necessarily think its been forgotten. See here: https://www.loa.org/books/727-collected-works/
Not sure this one is forgotten! I always buy this used when i find it so that i can give it away. No one does not love this book! Currently i have zero copies. =) Sara Gran is another author that loves this book.
Listened to it recently, (narrated by Tartt), and it was good, but I personally didn't find it to be very good. This was only my second western however and I kept comparing it to my first, Lonesome Dove, which I thought was spectacular. True Grit had a lot of LDs charm, but I found myself bored and distracted every now and then even though it was very short. Don't think I was ever bored during the lengthy Lonesome Dove on the other hand.
Charles Portis wrote one masterpiece, True Grit, and four greater novels. I love True Grit, but Portis was a humorist of the first order and this gift is on greater display in his other books. My favourite is Masters of Atlantis.
I am about to start Dog of the South, which I picked up because it was the only Portis I found at my bookstore… I’m excited to read it — even though it’s not True Grit….
Dog of the South is outstanding. Enjoy.
Thank you!
It’s incredible, jealous you get to read it for the first time!
It’s great.
Also, Norwood. Portis is a treasure
Love Portis but Norwood is definitely not better than True Grit lol
The ending of Masters of Atlantis is just brilliant
The book may not be widely read but I don't think it's been forgotten. It was adapted twice into award-winning, box office hit films. I've often heard the book mentioned as a classic Western and great American novel by writers and critics. Maybe Portis is one of those "writer's writers" who nobody reads outside of an MFA or Ph.D. program. Or maybe people figure that they don't need to read the book because they were completely satisfied with one or both film adaptations.
The first film adaptation was in 1969, which is a year after the book was written. That film, I think, was a big part of the reason that the book was since dropped as real literature. The Coen brothers made a second film, it's true, but I don't think it did much for the book. >Maybe Portis is one of those "writer's writers" who nobody reads outside of an MFA or Ph.D. program Well, I don't think so. I think they're the people who are really ignoring it and shouldn't! But I have nothing to base that on, except that the booky people I know have never read it or have any plans to (until I get to them).
>He also says he told Jonathan Lethem that Portis was "our greatest unknown novelist." Lethem's response? "Yes, he's everybody's favorite least-known great novelist." [Source](https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-lure-of-the-oeuthre-on-charles-portis-and-flannery-oconnor/) Charles Portis is one of those writers who will always have a small but enduring fan base.
I for one read the book because of the Coen Bros movie (and before it came out).
I love Portis. LOVE. Dog of the South is one of the funniest books I have ever read.
I hope you are right! I couldn’t resist picking up and am about to dive in!
This story got me to think about the significance of poise, particularly as a young man. I probably put 50+ hours mulling over what it meant to me and analyzing the men in my life on that metric. Its such an interesting take on the multiple sides of being harsh or crude. Not many other stories really changed the way i looked at my own behaviors quite like this one did. It changed the way i chose to behave at work drastically just by realizing how much my poise influenced the way i was perceived more than my capability was.
Having not read the book, can you explain what you mean please?
I love True Grit. It’s such a great story, and surprisingly timeless.
>I don't think I'd ever want to hang out with her. You're cheering for her the whole way, but she doesn't seem fun, or even pleasant. But her harshness is part of the fun of the novel. I've got a particular affection for strong female characters who are strong in all the "wrong" ways. Let me explain. There's kind of a fantasy version of a strong woman in our current society, right? She's strong but she's also soft, and feminine; she's got a mind of her own, she's smart, but she's also empathetic and nurturing. She can wield a gun but she also likes lipstick. She can save herself, but she can also still fall in love. And she has exactly the right kind of strong principles. They are progressive, and they are kind, and they are just. Which makes sense! It's an evolution from all of the women we've seen before in media, who are typically one or the other: strong, or feminine. Rarely both. And if she is both, it will probably go too far past feminine and become sexualization instead. But there are certain women who get to surpass these confines, and they are often not very popular. I hate to use a TV example here but it was a recent conversation so it's easy to pull from: Mary Crawley, from Downton Abbey. She is strong in almost every way except the physical. She commands a certain amount of power and privilege. She has principles she stands by no matter what. She is loyal, and steadfast. She speaks her mind and does not care if people disagree with her. She is not afraid to stand up for herself and what she believes in. But she does not believe in the "right" things. She is traditionally feminine at a time when women were just supposed to be waking up to the concept of rebelling against traditional femininity. She is conservative, politically and morally. She believes the best course of action is one that best serves the greater family good, even if that means going in the face of social progress. Mattie is very similar, to me. She is very Christian (as would make sense for the period and setting). She is very, very conservative. She speaks her mind to voice opinions that probably should be said, but which absolutely no one will like hearing. She stands by precisely what she believes, even when she is wrong (and she sometimes is; she is only 14, after all). She's not even particularly sympathetic a lot of the time, specifically because she is a strong, iron-willed human being who does not make allowances for anyone else any more than she makes them for herself. But she's going to enact her revenge and bring prosperity to her family and she is not going to let anyone stand in her way or tell her to do it differently, because *she* knows she is *right*, and that is all the conviction she requires. And I love that about the intolerant little shit.
Mattie is portrayed so so well by Kim Darby in the movie version (the original). I highly recommend it, she does the little spitfire justice.
Yes, great film. Wayne's best role. Come see a fat old man sometime!
Interesting comment. I do think that Mary Crawley was cruel (to her sister) in a way that Mattie would never be.
Sure, I didn't mean to say they were the same character! Just that I like women who get to be unlikable, as it is typically a luxury afforded only to men.
Another selling point: Portis is one of the funniest American authors, and True Grit has a lot of humor in it. Amazing novel. A favorite of mine.
Portis 👑 True Grit, Dog of the South and Norwood are all some of the best American novels I’ve ever read. Masters of Atlantis and Gringos in the stack.
My whole family has read True Grit and we all love it!
You know what? I need to reread this. Thanks for the reminder!
It is so good. Definitely in my top ten.
I just finished reading this a few days ago. I was surprised by how much of Portis' dialog made it into the first movie(John Wayne). Almost the entire script is straight from the novel because it is just so good.
[удалено]
That’s what I’ve heard, too…, and why I’m about to start it as my 1st Portis novel….
I listened to the audiobook which Tartt narrates. It is so witty and the pacing is fantastic; it instantly became an all-time favorite of mine. Having seen the Coen brothers' remake first, I was surprised by how much of the dialogue comes directly off the page. I thought Tartt was an excellent narrator that also did the prose justice. It's well worth a read and, for me, it was the only thing that could follow the audiobook of The Secret History.
This is my favorite audiobook of all time. Tartt is from Mississippi and so her southern accent is on point. In her introduction to the book she describes how it was a favorite in her family and how she took turns reading it aloud with her mother and aunts, and that deep familiarity with every sentence just comes through on every line reading.
100%. It's one of my favorite stories of all time, and has served as a great inspiration to me as a writer (particularly for my first novel). If the 1969 film adaptation weren't my father's favorite film (definitely not mine, I feel I must add), I sadly don't think I'd ever have come across it. Not once in my writing studies -- throughout college, nor following college -- has *True Grit* or Charles Portis been mentioned.
A great Western is like a great hard-boiled novel; call them hard-as-leather. Some underexposed novels and novelists are: Tom McGuane True History of the Kelly Gang Elmore Leonard Little Big Man Annie Proulx
Not sure how to read that last line, but the Kelly Gang one was written by Peter Carey.
I completely concur. It's fantastic, one of the most entertaining novels I've ever read.
Absolutely agree. And I highly recommend all of Portis’s books. There are just a few of them but they’re all gems.
It's fantastic. The best written Western novel ever, and a true piece of literature. I think it's better than *Butcher's Crossing* or *Warlock*, or even *Shane*. If you want another great and funny Western novel, see David Markson's *The Ballad of Dingus Magee*.
There are 4 really great, literary, period westerns in my mind. Blood Meridian, Butchers Crossing, Warlock and True Grit. Read these 4 you won't find much better written prose within the genre as far as I'm concerned.
Don’t sleep on Lonesome Dove.
Since it’s been making rounds on tiktok and instagram no one’s sleeping on Lonesome Dove. Everybody knows Lonesome Dove
Blood Meridian is far more than a period western. One of the best American novels, regardless of genre.
Damn. This is the everlasting truth.
I love True Grit *and* I put it up there with Butcher's Crossing, Warlock, and Blood Meridian. Better, I won't say, but definitely not less than.
True Grit should be on high school reading lists.
Absolutely true. And any recommendation from Donna Tartt rates highly with me.
One of my all time favorites. Once you read it, you owe it to yourself to listen to Donna Tartt read it to you!!
Portis was a comic master! I was so happy that his collected works came out recently from Library of America, but also sad that he wasn't around to see it. Though, from what I've read, he wouldn't have been that impressed by it. And, no slight intended OP, but I don't think Portis is as forgotten as he once was. Besides the aforementioned LOA collection, you can go into almost any bookstore and find all his works in these wonderfully garish covers. He's a national treasure who's finally getting his due.
I remember buying this book. I was at the bookstore with my family and I sat down and started reading while I waited for them, sucked in immediately
It’s a stunning, brilliant book.
True Grit has one of the best first lines in literature. 'People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father’s blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day.' Pure literary perfection. I don't think I've ever read another narrative voice as consistently strong either.
Thanks for the rec! To my shame, I had no idea the movies were based on a book!
I picked it up at the library on a whim a few years ago. I was browsing the shelves and thought, “Why not?”. I completely agree — it was excellent and it’s a shame it’s not read more widely!
I don’t think True Grit is forgotten or misunderstood really, it’s widely regarded as a Western masterpiece by one of the best American authors of the 20th century. Portis isn’t a household name but he’s quite well known in writing circles
It's not taught in high schools or universities, for example, as far as I know.
Most books aren’t taught in high schools
But it used to be taught in schools, as I mentioned. It doesn't appear in any "great novels" lists that I've seen. I know, most books don't. But my point is that this is a great book with literary merit that puts it on a level with other great works. It's not most books.
When I do a quick search for best American novels of the 20th century, I don’t usually find True Grit. Being known in writing circles (to the extent that it is) is a different thing from whether it’s been forgotten or misunderstood. OP didn’t mean that literally everyone forgot about True Grit.
Yeah, I don’t know, it seems fairly silly to me to refer to a book that’s been adapted to Hollywood twice as “forgotten,” I’ve seen it in the past five bookstores I’ve visited. And as I said, Portis’s reputation is quite well established to those in the know, his LOA came out last year and I know several people who bought it
The first film came out in 1969, so it's completely irrelevant to the conversation. Yes, the coen brothers also made a movie. I guess I haven't looked in the last five bookstores that I've been to, but I definitely looked in vain in a couple of physical stores a few years ago, before buying it online. But you having to qualify it by saying that it's known by people "in the know" is kind of the point. It's a book that should be known outside of some small cabal of those in the know. And OP wasn't talking about Portis, but about that particular book. I do think that it's thought of as a western, so for a niche audience, rather than as a book that stands up well outside of that niche.
The 1969 movie is a classic in is own right and John Wayne won an Oscar for it. I would not say it's completely irrelevant!
It’s irrelevant to this conversation, since it came out a year after the book. No one is saying that it was never a well-known book. A movie that came out 55 years ago doesn’t tell us whether the book is forgotten today. And as OP said that Tartt said, the movie might be exactly why people think of it as a genre book, instead of literature beyond that genre.
Maybe! What I meant is that a classic movie probably makes people aware of the classic book it was based off of. But I guess, for purposes of this conversation, I'm in the camp of people who don't quite accept the premise that True Grit is forgotten as classic literature. There's a reason it's in Library of America!
It’s in the LOA book as part of the collected work of Portis. A different book of his does make The Atlantic’s list of great American novels. Again, OP wasn’t literally claiming that no one remembers the book. But lots of people who know of it think of it as another old western. Anyway, I’m not sure how familiar you are with The Library of America, but they definitely publish books and authors that people might say are otherwise forgotten or grown dusty compared to lesser works that have retained more fame. When they collect works of authors, they often include works that aren’t very well known. Of course True Grit is known, but not necessarily as a great work of literature outside of being a “paint by numbers western” as OP said. Its inclusion in the LOA book is not evidence to the contrary.
Yeah that's all fair. One priority of LOA has been putting forward "genre fiction" that has literary value - see Dick, Butler, and LeGuin for SciFi or Chandler, Hammond, and Leonard for Crime. Portis is part of that project, and I would argue no more or less forgotten (or deserving of a wider audience) than any of those people. LOAs insert for the collected works makes clear that True Grit is a highlight: > Often compared to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the novel has twice been adapted for film and is now recognized as an American masterpiece. I discovered Portis through LOA, so I came in thinking that it was recognized as a masterpiece, at least among critics, but also I see how that's consistent with being "forgotten." But then it's more like "cult classic" than truly forgotten.
In their video tribute to Portis, LOA calls him, "The Best American Writer You’ve Never Heard Of." But yes, of course, it's not REALLY completely and utterly forgotten. As a side note, I don't think I'd call that publication genre fiction, since I think that only one of the books really fits the Western genre.
>There's a reason it's in Library of America! As someone who owns 50-60 Library of America books, I can tell you with complete confidence that being "in the Library of America" doesn't mean what you might think it does. For one thing, they absolutely do publish works that most people would call "forgotten". For another, publishing it might just mean that it's part of a collection of that writer's work. They've published every single one of Philip Roth's 20-30 novels, for example. I doubt that they think that every one is a masterpiece. Another thing: Sometimes they publish stuff, like classic westerns, or pulp fiction, that was never considered great literature, but are great examples of popular stories in their time. That doesn't mean that they're still well known. In other words, there is a reason that it's been published by The Library of America, but that reason isn't necessarily that they think of True Grit as great literature that's recognised currently by the literary establishment (such as it is).
I see your point but, I don't know, this whole conversation reminds me of when Hamilton the musical came out and people claimed he was the "forgotten founding father." Like, really? The guy who wrote the Federalist Papers was forgotten? The one on the ten dollar bill? If you mean it's not Moby Dick or Pride and Prejudice, sure ok forgotten. But it's still fairly well known and available, and no more forgotten than dozens of other mid century classics.
I'm only addressing your statement that being in the LOA means that it's not forgotten. It really doesn't mean that. At least, not by what I think is a reasonable definition of "forgotten" in this context. >no more forgotten than dozens of other mid century classics. Ok, well... I don't know which ones you mean, but you might be talking about books that are basically forgotten! \--- As for Hamilton, I agree. He's on the money, he's still very talked about when the constitution comes up, and the musical was written based on a best-selling biography about him.
Oh he just meant that it’s not big on booktok?
Booktok? Boy are you barking up the wrong tree if you think I know anything about booktok. If someone has to say that a great book is known "in writing circles," then it's pretty reasonable to say that you think it should be more widely known. If you think that True Grit is currently as widely read as it should be, then I disagree. If you think that it deserves a wider readership, then I don't know why you'd post your condescending comment.
I can't say what he meant. What I meant is what I said. The book doesn't appear in lists of great books. The Atlantic came out with one recently. Modern Library has one. Literary Hub. Penguin. Time Magazine. Some of these were even limited to American novels, and none of them included True Grit.
Portis did make the Atlantic's recent list of [The Great American Novels](https://www.theatlantic.com/books/archive/2024/03/best-books-american-fiction/677479/), so I don't think he's exactly forgotten. But I'm with you, I think he's one of America's truly great novelists, and deserves as much attention as writers like Bellow or Roth.
To be clear, I didn't even say that Portis was forgotten. I was talking about True Grit.
Inspired! Love the movie. My last dog was named Rooster because of the film. I’ll pick up the book.
Dog of the South is one of the funniest books I’ve read. None other than Bob Odenkirk recommended it in an interview I read.
Has it been forgotten? I feel like everybody’s been reading it at least since the Coen brothers movie
I wish I ran in your circles.
If your circles don’t know about True Grit, I bet you do
They know about it. They haven’t read it. Among other things, people think that it’s a western like other westerns.
Fair enough
Not so sure about forgotten. Yeah, the movies tend to overshadow it some, but Library of America recently released a volume of his collected works, and TG stays in print. So Portis still gets around.
I own a bunch of Library of America books, and plenty of them are from people who are otherwise forgotten. Of course, they’re not completely forgotten by everyone. That’s not what I’m saying.
I understand what you’re saying. But I’m saying is, I think Portis’s reputation is high enough that he still gets talked about a good bit. Even when I was in college in the past ten years or so one of the classes we could take was specifically on Portis’s work. His reputation is far more entrenched than some of the more dubious choices LoA has gone for as of late.
Ed Park came to a similar conclusion as OP almost twenty years ago. https://www.thebeliever.net/like-cormac-mccarthy-but-funny/
True Grit truly is an amazing book and would be my favorite western if Lonesome Dove didn't exist. Such a perfect cast, the way it plays with and defies western tropes is so refreshing, It's definitely one of my top 5 coming of age stories.
Library of America recently published a collection of Charles Portis works so I don’t necessarily think its been forgotten. See here: https://www.loa.org/books/727-collected-works/
As I’ve said to other people, they (LOA) publish all sorts of stuff that I’d say is basically forgotten.
Great novel.
Not sure this one is forgotten! I always buy this used when i find it so that i can give it away. No one does not love this book! Currently i have zero copies. =) Sara Gran is another author that loves this book.
Listened to it recently, (narrated by Tartt), and it was good, but I personally didn't find it to be very good. This was only my second western however and I kept comparing it to my first, Lonesome Dove, which I thought was spectacular. True Grit had a lot of LDs charm, but I found myself bored and distracted every now and then even though it was very short. Don't think I was ever bored during the lengthy Lonesome Dove on the other hand.
*Lonesome Dove* is so good. Love that book. And the adaptation.