Rooster: The Life and Times of the Real Rooster Cogburn, the Man Who Inspired True Grit

The real-life Franklin "Rooster" Cogburn was a cowboy, moonshiner, and outlaw in Arkansas and Oklahoma in the late 1800s; on the silver screen, John Wayne and Jeff Bridges played varyingly fictionalized versions of the hardscrabble frontiersman in the 1969 and 2010 film adaptations of Charles Portis' novel True Grit. Here, Rooster's great-grandson explores the life and times of his rabblerousing forebear in detail that occasionally overwhelms, but mostly entertains. Originally from the Scottish Lowlands, "the Cogburn clan" immigrated to America early in the nation's history, and they quickly took on the mantel of archetypal pioneers%E2%80%94their crest featured a fighting rooster and "[t]he only authority [they] recognized was God and a gun." An imposing figure with an indomitable personality, a deadly aim, and an intense dislike for whiskey-taxing "tyrant[s]," Rooster lived life as he saw fit and gave lawmen a run for their money. Fans of frontier arcana will revel in Cogburn's readable prose and lively characters. (Sept.)