True Grit cover, Jonathan Cape 1969
Hardback

True Grit (1969)

Publisher Jonathan Cape Year 1969 ISBN 9780224615785

Identification points are listed only where two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 21 Oct 2026.

Market value

What decides the price

  • It is the first UK edition; the true first was published elsewhere.
  • The original dust jacket carries much of the price for a book of this age; its condition matters as much as the book's.
  • Condition is graded separately for book and jacket, from Fine down to Poor.

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Sales record

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In short

Quick answer

Who published the True Grit 1969 hardback?
Jonathan Cape, London, in 1969, in hardback.
Identification

How to identify this edition

True Grit was serialised in The Saturday Evening Post and first published as a book by Simon and Schuster, New York, in 1968. The first British edition is the Jonathan Cape hardback, London, 1969, 215 pages, ISBN 0 224 61578 5, issued in a dust jacket. A later British Library record names Simon and Schuster 1968 and Cape 1969 as the original editions. The Penguin paperback of 1977 and later British reprints carry other imprints and ISBNs. Look for the Cape imprint, the 1969 date and no later impression statement; a Simon and Schuster imprint means the American first.

Publisher's practice

How Jonathan Cape marked its first editions

A Jonathan Cape first impression carries "First published" with the year on the back of the title page and nothing else, because Cape recorded every later impression in the same place.

  • Cape told H. S. Boutell that it printed "First published" and the year on the back of the title page and added a line such as "Second impression" with its year for each unrevised reprint. The Ahearns' publisher list for ILAB gives the same rule: "First published (Year)" on first editions, with later printings noted.
  • On the Bond novels, a first impression shows the "First Published" statement with no later printings listed beneath it.

Read the full guide to Jonathan Cape first editions, decade by decade, and check your copy's copyright page against it. Our number line decoder reads the printing from the row of numbers.

Printing by printing

Printings and states

First impression

1969

At a glance

Not yet researched

We have not yet confirmed the issue points that tell this first impression from later ones. Until we do, compare your copy's title page and copyright page with the publisher, place and year above: any later printing or edition statement means it is not this one.

Know the points? Tell us. We publish them, with credit, once a second source agrees.

Questions collectors ask

Frequently asked questions

Who published the True Grit 1969 hardback?

Jonathan Cape, London, in 1969, in hardback.

Sources

Where these facts come from

  • British National Bibliography, record GB6915895
  • True Grit (novel), Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
  • True grit: a novel (Cape, 1969
  • 215p
  • ISBN 0224615785), British National Bibliography record GB6915895, British Library (BNB Linked Open Data, 2018) (doi.org)
  • True Grit, ISBN 9780224615785, Jonathan Cape 1969 hardcover, AbeBooks (abebooks.com)
  • Charles Portis, True Grit, First Edition 1969 (Cape), John Atkinson Books (johnatkinsonbooks.co.uk)

Points of issue are listed only where at least two independent sources agree. Last reviewed 21 October 2026. Reviewed by Harriet Ellis; read how we check facts.