We at the Oxford American felt a special connection with him, being the home of the last two pieces he published and having honored him, our fellow Little Rockian, with an award for Lifetime Achievement in Southern Literature. Because he kept what I’ll call an unsocial media presence himself (he even remained email-less and cellphone-less till the end), the outpouring of affection from his fans was all about his words, which is how he always wanted it. Comedian David Cross showed off his tattoo of the cover art on the first edition of Masters of Atlantis Stephen King called Portis an “American original” and readers from everywhere shared stories of True Grit’s or Norwood’s or The Dog of the South’s lasting effect on them, mostly citing the books’ repeated ability to produce unalloyed delight.
The announcement of the death of Charles Portis elicited a social-media groundswell of mourning and appreciation from his fans. As with all of Portis’s fiction, the tone is cool, sympathetic, funny, and undeniably American.WRITERS REFLECT ON CHARLES PORTIS’S LIFE AND LEGACY Ratner, the self-described “world’s smallest perfect man” and helped Joann, “the chicken with a college education,” realize her true potential in life. Sent on a mission to New York by Grady Fring, the Kredit King, Norwood has visions of “speeding across the country in a late model car, seeing all the sights.” By the time he returns home to Ralph, Texas, Norwood has met his true love, Rita Lee, on a Trailway bus befriended Edmund B. Out of the Neon Desert of Roller Dromes, chili parlors, the Grand Ole Opry, and girls who want “to live in a trailer and play records all night” comes ex-marine and troubadour Norwood Pratt. Norwood, Charles Portis’s first novel, displayed right out of the gate the wit, style, and singular voice that made him one of our great American writers. Norwood, like a belt of whiskey, cleared my sinuses right up.” ––Slate
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