Charles McColl Portis (December 28, 1933 – February 17, 2020) was an American
author
An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states:
"''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...
best known for his novels ''
Norwood'' (1966) and the classic
Western
Western may refer to:
Places
*Western, Nebraska, a village in the US
*Western, New York, a town in the US
*Western Creek, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western Junction, Tasmania, a locality in Australia
*Western world, countries that id ...
''
True Grit
True Grit may refer to:
Fiction
* ''True Grit'' (novel), a 1968 novel by Charles Portis
** ''True Grit'' (1969 film), a film adaptation by Henry Hathaway, starring John Wayne
** ''True Grit'' (2010 film), a film adaptation by the Coen Brothers, ...
'' (1968), both adapted as films. The latter also inspired a film
sequel
A sequel is a work of literature, film, theatre, television, music or video game that continues the story of, or expands upon, some earlier work. In the common context of a narrative work of fiction, a sequel portrays events set in the same ...
and a made-for-TV movie sequel. A newer film
adaptation
In biology, adaptation has three related meanings. Firstly, it is the dynamic evolutionary process of natural selection that fits organisms to their environment, enhancing their evolutionary fitness. Secondly, it is a state reached by the po ...
of ''True Grit'' was released in 2010.
[Smith, Harrison]
Charles Portis, author of the Western classic ‘True Grit,’ dies at 86.
Washington Post Obituary, 19 February 2020.
Portis has been described as "one of the most inventively comic writers of western fiction".
Early life
Charles Portis was born in 1933 in
El Dorado, Arkansas
El Dorado, founded by Matthew Rainey, is a city in, and the county seat of, Union County, on the southern border of Arkansas, United States. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city is 18,884.
El Dorado is headquarters of the Ark ...
, the son of Alice (Waddell) and Samuel Palmer Portis. He was raised and educated in various towns in southern Arkansas, including
Hamburg
(male), (female) en, Hamburger(s),
Hamburgian(s)
, timezone1 = Central (CET)
, utc_offset1 = +1
, timezone1_DST = Central (CEST)
, utc_offset1_DST = +2
, postal ...
and
Mount Holly.
[
During the ]Korean War
, date = {{Ubl, 25 June 1950 – 27 July 1953 (''de facto'')({{Age in years, months, weeks and days, month1=6, day1=25, year1=1950, month2=7, day2=27, year2=1953), 25 June 1950 – present (''de jure'')({{Age in years, months, weeks a ...
, Portis enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps and reached the rank of sergeant
Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...
. After receiving his discharge in 1955, he enrolled in the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville
The University of Arkansas (U of A, UArk, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It is the flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System and the largest university in the state. Founded as Arkansas ...
. He graduated with a degree in journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the "news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (profes ...
in 1958.
Career
Portis began writing in college, for both the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville student newspaper, ''Arkansas Traveler'', and the ''Northwest Arkansas Times
''Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette'' () is a daily newspaper in Fayetteville, Arkansas owned by Northwest Arkansas Newspapers and has circulation of 17,807 copies.
History
''Northwest Arkansas Times'' was formerly owned by the Thomson Corpora ...
''. One of his tasks was to redact the colorful reporting of "lady stringers" in the Ozarks
The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant port ...
, a task credited as a source for the vivid voice that he created years later for his character Mattie Ross in ''True Grit''. After Portis graduated, he worked for various newspapers as a reporter, including the ''Memphis Commercial Appeal
''The Commercial Appeal'' (also known as the ''Memphis Commercial Appeal'') is a daily newspaper of Memphis, Tennessee, and its surrounding metropolitan area. It is owned by the Gannett Company; its former owner, the E. W. Scripps Company, also ...
'' and almost two years at the ''Arkansas Gazette
The ''Arkansas Gazette'' was a newspaper in Little Rock, Arkansas, that was published from 1819 to 1991. It was known as the oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi River. It was located from 1908 until its closing at the now historic Gazette ...
'', for which he wrote the "Our Town" column.
He then moved to New York City, where he worked for four years at the ''New York Herald Tribune
The ''New York Herald Tribune'' was a newspaper published between 1924 and 1966. It was created in 1924 when Ogden Mills Reid of the ''New-York Tribune'' acquired the ''New York Herald''. It was regarded as a "writer's newspaper" and competed ...
''. His work led him to return to the South frequently to cover civil rights stories during the early 1960s. After serving as the London
London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
bureau chief of the ''New York Herald Tribune'', he left journalism in 1964.
Portis next returned to Arkansas and began writing fiction full-time. In his first novel, ''Norwood'' (1966), he showed his preference for travel narratives with deadpan dialogue, combined with amusing observations on American culture. Set sometime from 1959 through 1961, the novel revolves around Norwood Pratt, a young, naïve ex-Marine living in Ralph, Texas. He is persuaded by con man Grady Fring (the first of several such characters created by Portis) to transport two automobiles to New York City. Norwood encounters a variety of people on the way to New York and back, including ex-circus
A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclist ...
midget
Midget (from ''midge'', a tiny biting insect) is a term for a person of unusually short stature that is considered by some to be pejorative due to its etymology. While not a medical term like "dwarfism", a medical condition with a number of ca ...
Edmund Ratner ("the world’s smallest perfect fat man"), Joann ("the college-educated chicken"), and Rita Lee, a girl Norwood woos and wins on the bus ride back to the South.
Like ''Norwood'', his novel ''True Grit'' (1968) was first serialized in condensed form in ''The Saturday Evening Post
''The Saturday Evening Post'' is an American magazine, currently published six times a year. It was issued weekly under this title from 1897 until 1963, then every two weeks until 1969. From the 1920s to the 1960s, it was one of the most widely c ...
''. The story is told in first person from the perspective of Yell County native Mattie Ross. At the time of the novel's events, she is a prim, shrewd, strong-willed, Bible-quoting 14-year-old girl. When her father is murdered in Fort Smith, Arkansas
Fort Smith is the third-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. As of the 2020 Census, the population was 89,142. It is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas–Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Are ...
, by Tom Chaney, a hired hand, she sets out to bring the killer to justice. She recruits Deputy Marshal Rooster Cogburn — in whom Mattie sees one possessed of "grit" — to help her hunt down Chaney (who has joined an outlaw band) to "avenge her father’s blood". Both satirical of Westerns and realistic, the novel succeeded through its taut story line, Mattie's believable narrative voice, its sharp dialogue, and a journalistic attention to details.
Both ''Norwood'' and ''True Grit'' were adapted as movies, with fellow Arkansan
Arkansas ( ) is a landlocked state in the South Central United States. It is bordered by Missouri to the north, Tennessee and Mississippi to the east, Louisiana to the south, and Texas and Oklahoma to the west. Its name is from the Osage ...
Glen Campbell
Glen Travis Campbell (April 22, 1936 – August 8, 2017) was an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, actor and television host. He was best known for a series of hit songs in the 1960s and 1970s, and for hosting ''The Glen Campbell Goodt ...
and Kim Darby
Kim Darby (born Deborah Zerby; July 8, 1947) is an American actress best known for her role as Mattie Ross in the film ''True Grit'' (1969).
Early life and film career
Darby was born Deborah Zerby in Los Angeles, the daughter of professional da ...
in leading roles in the two films. Both pictures were commercially successful. John Wayne
Marion Robert Morrison (May 26, 1907 – June 11, 1979), known professionally as John Wayne and nicknamed The Duke or Duke Wayne, was an American actor who became a popular icon through his starring roles in films made during Hollywood's Gol ...
won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his performance as Rooster Cogburn in ''True Grit'', one of the top box-office hits of 1969. ''True Grit'' was released on June 11, 1969, earning US$
The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...
14.25 million at the box office. A second film version, written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
Joel Daniel Coen (born November 29, 1954) and Ethan Jesse Coen (born September 21, 1957),State of Minnesota. ''Minnesota Birth Index, 1935–2002''. Minnesota Department of Health. collectively known as the Coen brothers (), are American film ...
and starring Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld debuted in December 2010.
Portis published several short pieces in ''The Atlantic Monthly
''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science.
It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
'', including the memoir "Combinations of Jacksons" and the story "I Don't Talk Service No More".
Death
Portis lived in Little Rock, Arkansas, where he died of Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...
on February 17, 2020, at the age of 86.[
]
Works
Novels
* 1966: ''Norwood''
* 1968: ''True Grit''
* 1979: ''The Dog of the South
''The Dog of the South'' is a 1979 novel by Charles Portis.
''The Dog of the South'' is included in the Library of America of Portis' ''Collected Works.''
Plot summary
Ray Midge's wife, Norma, has run off with Guy Dupree, her ex-husband – ...
''
* 1985: '' Masters of Atlantis''
* 1991: ''Gringos
''Gringo'' (, , ) (masculine) (or ''gringa'' (feminine)) is a term in Spanish and Portuguese for a foreigner, usually an English-speaking Anglo-American. There are differences in meaning depending on region and country. In Latin America, it is ge ...
''
Nonfiction
* 2012: '' Escape Velocity: A Charles Portis Miscellany''
Short fiction, articles, etc.
* "The New Sound from Nashville," ''The Saturday Evening Post'', 239 (12 February 1966): 30–38.
* "Traveling Light," ''The Saturday Evening Post'', 239 (18 June 1966): 54–77 ; 239 (2 July 1966): 48–75. (The revised, serialized version of ''Norwood'').
* "True Grit," ''The Saturday Evening Post'', 241 (18 May 1968): 68–85; 241 (1 June 1968): 46–61; 241 (15 June 1968): 44–57. (The condensed, serialized version of ''True Grit'').
"Your Action Line"
''The New Yorker'' Archive, 53 (12 December 1977): 42–43. Faulkner Wells, Dean, ed. ''The Great American Writers' Cookbook''. Oxford: Yoknapatawpha Press (1981).
* "Nights Can Turn Cool in Viborra", ''The Atlantic Monthly'', 270 (Dec. 1992): 101–106.
* "I Don't Talk Service No More." ''The Atlantic Monthly'', May, 1996, Vol. 277, No. 5, pp. 90–92.
* "Combinations of Jacksons." ''The Atlantic Monthly'', May, 1999, Vol. 283, No. 5, pp. 81–92. (A Memoir).
References
External links
Article by Ed Park from The Believer, March 2003
Encyclopedia of Arkansas History & Culture: Charles McColl Portis
{{DEFAULTSORT:Portis, Charles
1933 births
2020 deaths
True Grit
20th-century American novelists
American male novelists
Writers from Arkansas
People from El Dorado, Arkansas
University of Arkansas alumni
Military personnel from Arkansas
United States Marines
American male short story writers
People from Hamburg, Arkansas
20th-century American short story writers
20th-century American male writers
United States Marine Corps personnel of the Korean War