Street-smart, wickedly funny, piercingly perceptive, and eloquent enough to win a Pulitzer Prize, Mike Royko continues to have legions of devoted fans who still wonder “what Royko would have said” about some outrageous piece of news. One thing he hardly ever wrote or talked about, though, was his private life, especially the time he shared with his first wife, Carol. She was the love of his life, and her premature death at the age of forty-four shook him to his soul. Mike’s unforgettable public tribute to Carol was a heart-wrenching column written on what would have been her forty-fifth birthday, “November Farewell.” His most famous and requested piece, it was the end of an untold story.
Royko in Love offers that story’s moving and utterly beguiling beginning in letters that “Mick” Royko, then a young airman, wrote to his childhood sweetheart, Carol Duckman. He had been in love with her since they were kids on Chicago’s northwest side, but she was a beauty and he was, well, anything but. Before leaving for Korea, he was crushed to hear she was getting married, but after returning to Blaine Air Force Base in Washington, he learned she was getting a divorce. Mick soon began to woo Carol in a stream of letters that are as fervent as they are funny. Collected here for the first time, Royko’s letters to Carol are a mixture of sweet seduction, sarcastic observations on military life, a Chicago kid’s wry view of rural folk, the pain of self-doubt, and the fear of losing what is finally so close, but literally so far. His only weapons against Carol’s many suitors were his pen, his ardor, and his brilliance. And they won her heart.
Royko in Love: Mike's Letters to Carol
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"Mike Royko''s tough, witty columns made him famous, but true fans know that the columns in which he revealed his soft side were among his most memorable. Royko in Love is the young Royko opening his heart, using letters to court the woman who was the love of his life. The letters are funny, full of love, longing and hope for the future, and each contains the seed of the talent that would make Royko the most celebrated journalist of his time.”—Doug Moe, author of The World of Mike Royko
(Doug Moe 20100819)“For 30 years Mike Royko''s newspaper columns made life miserable for bad guys in politics and business, and brightened the day for readers across the country. But for him, the most important words he ever wrote are the ones in this book: his letters to the beautiful girl he had loved from afar since he was 9 and she was 6. He was, as his son David says, a Cyrano de Bergerac in an airman''s uniform, a 21-year-old Chicago kid using his pen to express what he couldn''t say in person. It worked. He won her heart, and this book will win yours, too.”—Lois Wille
(Lois Wille 20100819) “Mike Royko''s letters burn with the passion and obsession of the moment. It is a state older men remember as happiness because they would be so happy to feel anything that intensely again.”—Michael Miner, Chicago Reader
(Michael Miner Chicago Reader 20100901) “A book that will delight and surprise Royko fans.”—Wisconsin State Journal
(Wisconsin State Journal 20100916)
"The letters . . . are endearing and often funny, as they provide a glimpse into the mind and personality of young Mike [Royko]."—Library Journal
(Sharon M. Britton Library Journal 20100919) "A collection of warm, fervent love letters written by a man who later made a rather good living out of writing—though not about love. Mike Royko never shared his private life with his legion of newspaper readers, but they came to know him as a perceptive, chain-smoking, funny-but-fearless champion of the underclass, and a thorn in the side of the Chicago politicians he took delight in spearing. He became a celebrated syndicated columnist and a Pulitzer Prize winner, but the love letters written in 1954 to woo Carol, his childhood sweetheart, were likely the most important assignment of his life. He sure wrote like it was."—Jane Christmas, Maclean''s
(Jane Christmas Maclean's 20101031)
"Collected and edited by David [Royko], the 114 missives—alternately happy and sappy, angry and jealous, funny and serious, comprise the newly released Royko in Love. They were penned, pre- and post-nuptials, over the course of around 10 months and are rife with the cutting wit and wry cynicism for which Royko would one day become renowned."—Mike Thomas, Chicago Sun-Times
(Mike Thomas Chicago Sun-Times 20100222)
“Royko reached for his pen and went after Carol with a fever, displaying the same level of pursuit he would later employ in chasing bureaucrats and political hacks. . . . The Royko cadence was already locked in — simple, unadorned sentences that don''t show the sweat behind them and are marked by a near-poetic lack of pretense. Even then, barely old enough to vote, he made it look effortless.”—Steve Lopez, Los Angeles Times
(Steve Lopez Los Angeles Times ) "Mike Royko wrote love letters to his readers every day, and maybe this is how he got started."—Roger Ebert
(Roger Ebert )
About the Author
Mike Royko (1932–97) worked as a daily columnist for the Chicago Daily News, the Chicago Sun-Times, and the Chicago Tribune. His Pulitzer Prize–winning columns were syndicated in more than six hundred newspapers across the country. He is the author of Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago; One More Time: The Best of Mike Royko; For the Love of Mike: More of the Best of Mike Royko; and Early Royko: Up Against It in Chicago, the latter three published by the University of Chicago Press.
David Royko is the director of the Marriage and Family Counseling Service of the Circuit Court of Cook County. He is also the son of Mike and Carol Royko, and the author of Voices of Children of Divorce.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Poignant, Passionate, And Funny,
By Gail K. Powers "Abra" (Harbor Country, Mi,N. Naples, FL, Chicago area) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Royko in Love: Mike's Letters to Carol (Hardcover)
A couple of months after his first wife's death, columnist Mike Royko wrote a piece that commemorated her birthday. It was heartbreaking and moving in its simplicity and provided a small window into their relationship. This collection of letters from Mike (or Mick as he was then known) to Carol provides greater insite into their relationship as Mike (then an airman stationed in Blaine WA) begins his distant courtship of Carol in earnest through letters.
They were an unlikely couple. Carol was movie star beautiful with many suitors and Mike was an ordinary guy who loved her from afar from the time he was nine and she was six. The letters represented a slice of life from the perspective of Mike's military career and a snapshot of the '50's mixed with words of love that were so tender that they must have worked. Within a year, Mike and Carol were married and he received a transfer to the Chicago area and they hegan their married life together. Their son assembled this collection and with mimimal narrative that serves as a point of reference lets this collection speak for itself. It was an interesting and affectionate read from a modern day Cyrano to his beloved it. I loved it because it was real chick stuff, but any faithful Royko reader would enjoy it as it gives the reader a look at Royko unedited.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What letters -- and books -- and romance -- should be,
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Royko in Love: Mike's Letters to Carol (Hardcover)
You don't have to love Royko to love 'Royko in Love.' You don't even even have to know who he was. That's the beauty of Royko's words and the beauty of this terrific book. It's a great read from start to finish. It's a love story from Mike to Carol and from their son right back to his parents. These are vibrant, heartbreaking, funny, funny letters written by one of our nation's finest writers. Nobody tells a story like Royko. What a rare treat to read him telling the toughest, and softest, story of all -- his own.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I fell in love with this book!,
By Shannon (British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Royko in Love: Mike's Letters to Carol (Kindle Edition)
I just fell in love with this book. I couldn't put it down. You can feel the love, the desperation, the longing, the frustration...all of it. I don't know Mike Royko as a writer but this book touched me. I enjoyed every moment of it. Knowing these people really existed, that that kind of love really exists just made this book all the more interesting and enjoyable to read. It is the most romantic book I have ever read.
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