Royko: A Life in Print by F. Richard Ciccone

Royko: A Life in Print by F. Richard Ciccone • Hardcover • PublicAffairs; First Edition (June 14, 2001) • 480 Pages Condition: Excellent ————————————- When Royko began his career in journalism in the 1950s, newspapers were the sole providers of information, uniquely individual, thriving or failing on their abilities to report faster, write better, and laugh louder than their competitors. Journalism was a tough profession. Police reporters were on the take from mobsters and editors paid more attention to advertisers than to readers. Reporters carried phony police badges and hid pints of bad whiskey in their bottom drawers. They smoked. They drank. And Royko out-wrote the best of them. He insulted and taunted the most vicious killers in Chicago and the most powerful big city boss of the century. He exposed graft and greed. He damned hypocrisy and he defended the little man. Mike Royko was also haunted by conflict. A difficult man, he would intimidate his assistants every morning and retire to the Billy Goat Tavern every night. He was arrogant and kind. He was incomparably witty and suddenly morose. He was vain and insecure. He played hard and he wrote harder and longer than any other newspaperman. Royko: A Life in Print not only tells the story of one of America's greatest newspapermen, but also explores the dramatic developments in journalism and in American society over the course of the twentieth century. ———————————————————