The World of Mike Royko

Doug Moe

You Say Your Mother Loves You? – Mike Royko was the quintessential newspaper columnist. He told it like it was. His prose could make you guffaw, or weep, or grow angry; sometimes, all three in about a thousand well-crafted words. Over the course of his career, Royko worked for Chicago’s three main newspapers: the Chicago Daily News, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Tribune. He won the Pulitzer Prize in 1972 for commentary. He wrote a modern classic on Chicago politics, "Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago." Moreover, with the assistance of a “legman” or two, Royko also consistently produced one of the greatest daily newspaper columns in the country. I, like most people in Chicago, read him regularly. Once, when I was a college-aged student reporter, I saw Royko seated at the end of the bar in the Billy Goat Tavern, but I wisely refrained from speaking to him. Royko loved to drink, and he did not suffer fools (and some fans) gladly. Doug Moe’s loving biography, full of newspaper photographs and family snapshots, is a must-read.