Charles Portis, R.I.P.

[Wade Hampton]

Charles Portis, author of True Grit and a handful of other great books, has died. I became a fan after seeing the John Wayne movie while still in high school - after we saw it my dad got the paperback of the novel and read it, then passed it to me. I became a dedicated Portis fan and tracked down all of his other books, jubilant on the (very) rare occasions when he published another.

Portis was from Arkansas, I’m from Missouri, we share a similar sense of hillbilly comic exaggeration....

Anyway, he was one of the greatest little known authors, someone who made the world just a little brighter for having been in it.


Wade Hampton Miller

[frankmcr]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Charles Portis, author of True Grit and a handful of other great books, has died. I became a fan after seeing the John Wayne movie while still in high school - after we saw it my dad got the paperback of the novel and read it, then passed it to me. I became a dedicated Portis fan and tracked down all of his other books, jubilant on the (very) rare occasions when he published another.

I'd forgotten what a fine book that is. Haven't read it since the 1970s, and yet so much of it comes back to me now, just seeing the title mentioned.

[Wade Hampton]

Check out Dog of the South and Masters of Atlantis while you’re at it...


whm