Since I sell books, I can’t really collect them (although I have amassed a fair-sized horde). That is to say, most my books have a price tag on them. I decided some time ago that I could allow myself to keep five books that would constitute my private collection, not for sale.
Then, I was showing one off, and the lady asked my price for it, then agreed to pay it. The book was well worth the money, but I wish I had kept it, since its replacement isn’t near as nice a copy.
First Edition cover True Grit
My five favorite list had a bump-out last week, and the replacement came in this morning. After finishing True Grit by Charles Portis, I decided it needed to be in my five favorite books of all time. The First Edition copy has a nice dustjacket with its original price – a nice, solid copy. (I had two Charles Dickens tales in my 5 favorites, but I haven’t decided which one drops out of the top five…)
I don’t read westerns, as a rule, although I enjoy historical fiction. I don’t watch western movies either, in general, although I have greatly enjoyed several. I never saw John Wayne’s version of True Grit, so my reading of the story was a completely new experience, prompted by the release of the Coen Brothers’ film version of the book. I haven’t seen it either, but a number of folks came straight from the theater to the book store, wanting to read a copy. I ordered it in, and decided to take it up myself.
Charles Portis attended school and worked in NW Arkansas, and his experiences there no doubt contributed to his extensive vocabulary of regional dialectic idioms that make his quest tale so compelling. The story of the good guys chasing the bad guys has been told since the first human campfire – but rarely in the satisfying style of True Grit.
I could not put the book down. Half of it was devoured in a single setting, and it was finished off two days later. Even the results of my tendancy to compile critique items seemed petty. It is the most satisfying read I’ve had since – since I don’t know when.
It is particularly satisfying to know that a book written fairly recently (1968 is recent when compared to the stories published since Gutenberg first worked the kinks out of his printing press…) – can claim a place amongst so many classics, even if it is in my own humble estimation.
Please don’t ask a price on it just yet… I’d love to own this First Edition for a short while, anyway – at least until the taste of having devoured it so quickly diminishes just a little.