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.
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Although the Election Night '96 dust-up in which Brinkley unfairly trashed Bill Clinton may have momentarily obscured it, the truth is he's one of the most insightful political commentators ever to appear regularly on television. He's also had tremendous timing: after some short stints at small newspapers in little Southern towns, Brinkley became NBC's White House correspondent in 1943, and after FDR, went on to cover ten other presidents. (He became particularly friendly with LBJ.) In the process, Brinkley became an expert on the folkways of Washington, D.C. As reported here, when Brinkley was preparing for the broadcast of the first moon landing, he asked the director of NASA about the significance of the event. "David," came the reply, "if this all works I can get Congress to raise my budget to $20 billion next year."
From Publishers Weekly
Born in 1920 and raised in Wilmington, N.C., Brinkley began writing for the local paper in high school. He soon graduated to the United Press and, by WWII, was working for NBC Radio in Washington, D.C. It was there that he covered his first president, FDR ("a social snob"); was present at Churchill's famous "Iron Curtain" speech in 1946; and witnessed the miracle election of Truman in 1948. He slowly moved into TV and was paired with Chet Huntley at the 1956 political conventions. Their immediate chemistry led to the top-rated Huntley-Brinkley Report on the NBC Network. Brinkley reminisces about his friendship with Robert Kennedy; tells a hilarious story about how LBJ garnered votes from the cemetery; remembers how he first came across a "rural tinhorn" who went on to become Senator Jesse Helms; and recalls how it felt to be #1 on Nixon's enemies list. He also recounts how he left NBC and joined ABC to host This Week With David Brinkley. He gives his crusty opinion of both political parties: "I find one to be about as bad as the other and both pretty bad." The only thing that mars this work is Brinkley's diatribe against taxes, which comes off as the ramblings of a grump. A thoughtful, breezy, anecdotal work. Photos. 150,000 first printing; BOMC and QPB selections.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
He Forgot The Interesting Stuff,
By
This review is from: David Brinkley (Hardcover)
Disappointed almost to the point of disgust, to put it in as straightforward a way as possible. How can someone that has been involved in so much history give us a memoir with so little to say. He has seen so much, interviewed so many important and influential people during the last 40 years surly he has better stories then this. The book started out with the obligatory small town boy stories with the average level of interest, unfortunately the book really never got past this dull, inconsequential stuff. He gave as much time to getting stuck with a dinner bill by the Kennedy's as he did the assassination of JFK. You decide which is more important. Overall I felt the book was a major let down.
3.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting but no award winner,
By K.A.Goldberg (Chicago) - See all my reviews
This review is from: David Brinkley (Hardcover)
David Brinkley (1920-2003) brings his famous dry wit to this reasonably attractive 1995 memoir. Brinkley describes his youth in North Carolina, his education and military service, and then his long career in journalism. I liked reading about his covering Franklin D. Roosevelt, his 1945 visit to an anti-smoking group (whom he dismissed as cranks), and his covering Winston Churchill's ¨Iron Curtain¨ speech in Fulton, Missouri - on the train there President Truman ordered reporters to lose at poker to Churchill, who was a mediocre player. Brinkley also describes the rise of television news, his co-anchoring the top-rated Huntley-Brinkley Report (1956-1970), John F. Kennedy, Vietnam, Richard Nixon, etc. There is quite a bit of history in these pages.
I liked that Brinkley uses the same dry wit here that he brought to his TV shows. Yet he seldom goes deep in his subjects, and this memoir never quite connects as do those by Theodore H White, Walter Cronkite, William L. Shirer, and other top journalists.
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