Charles Portis was born on December 28, 1933 in El Dorado, Arkansas.  His father, Samuel, was a public school superintendent, while his mother, Alice Waddell, was an adamant supporter of the literary arts.  Portis joined the Marine Corps following his graduation from school, serving from 1952 to 1955.  During this time he rose to the rank of sergeant, and following his discharge he received a B.S. in journalism from the University of Arkansas.  He worked as a reporter for several publications, including the Commercial Appeal in Memphis, the Herald Tribune in New York, and the Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock.  His position at the Herald Tribune enabled his to interact with such journalists as Dick Schaap, Jimmy Breslin, and Tom Wolfe.  The paper promoted him to the position of London correspondent, but he returned to Arkansas shortly thereafter to peruse a career in fictional literature (Idol 361; Colby 697; Magill 1665).   Charles Portis has been described as "one of the most inventively comic writers of western fiction.  With an unerring ear for the rhythms of speech and idiosyncrasies of language, he delivers deadpan humor as his characters strive to come to terms with their own limitations and an increasingly cockeyed world."  He utilizes the effectiveness of humor to define various components of the American character and its spirit (Cleary 610).  The characters Portis tends to illustrate throughout his novels are Arkies (or residents of Arkansas), and he "takes the cliche of the Arkansas Traveler and stands it on its head."  He implicates these protagonists in adventures in a broad range of adventures in "a bewildering, and sometimes dangerous, world" (Magill 1667).  Generally Portis' literature demonstrates the attitudes resulting from the "clash between the temperaments and values of the old and new South and between traditional Southern traits such as independence and gentility and the untamed, willful quality of the Southwest" (Connaughton 264).  Through his affective and entertaining narratives, Charles Portis allows the reader to glimpse a Southern mentality, as well as various attributes that define human nature.

Works By Portis

"The New Sound from Nashville." Saturday Evening Post (February 12, 1966): 30.
"Traveling Light." Saturday Evening Post (June 18, 1966): 48.
Norwood. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966.
True Grit. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1968.
The Dog of the South.  New York: Knopf, 1979.
Masters of Atlantis.  New York: Knopf, 1985.
Gringos.  New York: Simon and Schuster, 1991.
"I Don't Talk Service No More." The Atlantic Monthly, May 1996.