David Brinkley: A Memoir [Paperback]

David Brinkley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 10, 1995

David Brinkley, icon of the American airwaves, has written his autobiography, a classic American story which overlaps with some of the great events and important personages of the era. From playing poker with Truman to riding the rails with Churchill to walking the beaches with D-Day veterans, readers are privy to some of Brinkley's most priceless remembrances. of photos.


From the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Television newsman Brinkley's look back on his career spent 11 weeks on PW's bestseller list.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"It seems to me now that Huntley's and my success lay mainly in the fact that we were new, as television was new, and we had few competitors. . . . Nearly everything we did had never been done before. . . . What is now commonplace was in its beginning a grand and glorious adventure for the people of our country and the world, a vicarious balloon ride into the stars. . . ."
Just how a young man growing up in a small southern town with only one one-hundred-watt A.M. radio station and no network affiliation became one of the world's most respected broadcasters in the nation makes for a "grand and glorious adventure" in itself. Now, in this fascinating and charmingly candid memoir of a career spanning half a century, David Brinkley recollects from his own unique vantage point the remarkable, shaky beginnings of television news, the ever-changing social and political landscape of our country, and the colorful people who have crossed his path. He includes priceless moments playing poker with Harry Truman, riding the rails with Winston Churchill, being whisked off by helicopter to Camp David by Lyndon Johnson, and receiving the distinguished Medal of Freedom from George Bush. From the New Deal to the Contract with America, David Brinkley has seen it all. . . and he knows how to tell a story--especially his own.
"Reading it is like sitting in your living room, having a conversation with this wonderful man. He writes the way he talks, the words flowing easily and comfortably; the book, a wry, elegant, funny, intimate, always interesting, often insightful trip across 75 years."
--The Boston Globe
"A WEALTH OF ANECDOTES."
--San Francisco Chronicle
"CHOCK FULL OF GOOD STORIES."
--The Christian Science Monitor
A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 273 pages
• Publisher: Random House Large Print; 1st edition (October 10, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 067940693X
• ISBN-13: 978-0679765066
• ASIN: 0679765069
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,358,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars David Brinkley, a rambling book, April 6, 2002

By 

Lewis F Townsend MD (Dunwoody, Georgia United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: David Brinkley (Audio Cassette)

I was quite excited to get David Brinkley's book, as I have enjoyed his newscasts for years, particularly the early conventions. As it turns out, this is a "Chatty-Cathy" book that rambles on about his life, with his TV persona somewhat as an afterthought. The book is quite readable with his enjoyable laconic style, but at the end, you don't know much more about him, TV, the process of TV news, or the events to which he was an eyewitness....at least not more than you already knew or could surmise.
The book was a pleasant interlude, but somewhat a bit of froth

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Insightful but could have been more organized., June 30, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Indianapolis, Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: David Brinkley (Audio Cassette)

Brinkley gives the reader a lot of insight on how it was like to be one of the first people in broadcast journalism and he fills the book with rich anecdotes and humorous incidents that he got to cover. One such incident is that when he was covering the opening of Cape Canavaral in Florida the town of Cocca Beach grew so fast that a hotel owner expanded a hotel without even bothering to check to see if the additional land belonged to him. The actual owner of the land did not complain until the construction was finished and then he claimed the hotel to himself. Although Brinkley tries to go into a chronological order sometimes he skips back and forth between different time periods and this can be very confusing. As far as his content is concerned he includes a lot about various topics from the political conventions to the foreign policy issues that affected this nation (Vietnam and post World War II Europe). However the civil rights movement was a major part of the 1950's and 60's and since he is from the South I would have expected that he would have devoted an entire chapter to covering this tumultuous time in American history. Overall this book is worth reading.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Light and Entertaining Memoir of Old Style News Man, April 17, 2001

By 

Wayne A. Smith (Newark, DE) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: David Brinkley: A Memoir (Paperback)

To me, Brinkley always seemed a cut above the modern TV journalist / anchor -- more sober, more professional and less interested in focusing the attention on himself rather than his subject.

David Brinkley tells his life story in this quick book. Growing up with the new medium of television, he and his partner (Chet Huntly) wrote much of the playbook for the way network news and tv interview shows are conducted.

This is an interesting story that tells not only of Brinkley's growth and development but also of the maturation of the tv news industry. Along the way, Brinkley was witness to many seminal events and has of course met many of the notables of his era.

The man's integrity and dedication to the profession of journalism shines through in this book. I can't imagine Sam or Cokie or Dan or Peter writing this book. Too much would be devoted to image and the their impact on the news. Brinkley was able to achieve the incredible credibility he enjoyed because he was made of different stuff -- this is the story of a darn good journalist who understood the difference between covering the news and entering it.