The Coen Brothers' forthcoming adaptation of Charles Portis's True Grit has brought the celebrated, if reclusive, author back into the headlines...and onto readers' bookshelves. Overlook, Portis's publisher, has seen strong sales on its tie-in edition of the book, which it published on November 4. The indie house went to press for 100,000 copies of the edition--it features, as the house's previous edition did, an afterword by Donna Tartt, with updated cover art that references the movie. Jack Lamplough at Overlook predicted that a second printing of the tie-in will happen before Christmas.
The Coens' film, which is scheduled to open wide on December 22, has also ignited an interesest in Portis's other novels. Lamplough said Overlook "rescued" the author's backlist a few years ago and is now seeing a sales spark in Portis titles like The Dog of the South, Gringos, Masters of Atlantis, and Norwood.
While movie adaptations are expected to spark sales for their print source material, Lamplough thinks the Coens' adaptation is a unique example of how a movie can help a book. True Grit, Portis's best known novel, was a major success when it was published in 1968 but, as Lamplough explained, over time "the movie eclipsed the book in the popular consciousness."
But the Coens, Lamplough said, have stayed closer to Portis's novel than the Wayne western, and the filmmakers have been talking that fact up. "The Coen Brothers and [their] stars Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon have repeatedly said the new movie takes its inspiration from the Portis novel, and not the 1969 movie starring John Wayne," Lamplough said.
Overlook has also been doing its part to publicize the book. The house launched a True Grit Facebook page and is working with Paramount on a publicity campaign that pushes both the movie and the book. To that end, an interview with Overlook publisher Peter Mayer will be featured on the planned DVD edition of the film. And this is as it should be, according to Lamplough. "We think the film is going to draw interest to Charles Portis as one of the great unsung writers of our time--which he certainly is."
