True Grit 9

"I read her about the Wharton trial in the New Era and the Elevator. I also read a little book someone had left on the table called Bess Calloway's Disappointment." (70)

The New era and the Elevator are two newspapers or magazines that Portis created just for True Grit. In this quote, Maddie is reading to Grandma Turner of the Wharton trial - the trial that Rooster is in and where Maddie finds him for the first time - while she stays with Mrs. Floyd and is sick in bed. This ties in with the fictional journalists that Portis created just to support the main story. He could have found real papers in that time period, but did not. Bess Calloway's Disappointment, the other fictional book Portis wrote in, is also nowhere to be found when searched for. Portis fictionalized these papers for the same reason as he fictionalized the female writers - to create a sense of faux reality that is important to make the reader focus on the symbolism of the plot.