June 27, 2010

True Grit, the second novel written by Arkansas native Charles Portis, recounts the 1870s story of a young Arkansas girl named Mattie Ross who hires Marshal Rooster Cogburn to track down the man who robbed and killed her father in Fort Smith (Sebastian County). Published in 1968, the novel has sold millions of copies and, a year after publication, was turned into the movie that garnered John Wayne an Academy Award.