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Trust Sandy Frazier to write a piece of criticism that locates the secret of a book’s magic, and recreated some of that magic in miniature.

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I loved this piece, thank you! Both the True Grit films rank high on my list of all time favourites, and I never knew they came from a book, and such an antique text! Coincidentally, I've just written a double Substack piece about Tom Hughes, a great friend of Lowell, a fan of The Bigelow Papers, and an abolitionist who set up a commune in Tennessee. He was famous in the UK as the author of Tom Brown's School Days. You might enjoy the stack?

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Read it for first time about 10 years ago with my son, who was around 10 at the time. A great book for reading out loud.

"The book takes a hard look at Election and seems to conclude that if you're not one of the Elect having "true grit" might be almost as good." Amen to that : )

I will have to read it again now!

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