Buy New
 

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
 
Buy Used
Used - Very Good See details
$3.70 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
Fulfilled by Amazon

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Express Checkout with PayPhrase
What's this? | Create PayPhrase
More Buying Choices
860 used & new from $0.01
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
A Reporter's Life
 
 
See all product images
See 1 customer image
Share your own customer images
Search inside this book
Tell the Publisher!
I’d like to read this book on Kindle

Don’t have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here.
 
  

A Reporter's Life (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "IF, AS THEY SAY, the threat of the hangman's noose has a powerful way of focusing one's attention, the same can be said of pregnancy..." (more)
Key Phrases: oil column, anchor desk, New York, White House, Kansas City (more...)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
List Price: $35.00
Price: $23.10 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $11.90 (34%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.

Want it delivered Thursday, March 11? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
88 new from $1.89 726 used from $0.01 46 collectible from $4.50

Formats

 Amazon Price New from Used from
Hardcover $23.10   $1.89 $0.01
Paperback $11.56   $3.85 $0.01
Audio, Cassette, Audiobook, Unabridged $88.00   $88.00 $6.93
Unknown Binding --   $15.00 --
There is a newer edition of this item:
A Reporters Life A Reporters Life 3.7 out of 5 stars (54)
11 used & new from $16.54
What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
A Reporter's Life
83% buy the item featured on this page:
A Reporter's Life 3.7 out of 5 stars (54)
$23.10
True Compass: A Memoir
2% buy
True Compass: A Memoir 4.1 out of 5 stars (260)
$23.10
Front Row at the White House : My Life and Times
2% buy
Front Row at the White House : My Life and Times 3.9 out of 5 stars (44)
$10.88
Explore similar items

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Walter Cronkite Remembers - 3 DVD COLLECTOR'S EMBOSSED TIN! DVD ~ Walter Cronkite

A Reporter's Life + Walter Cronkite Remembers - 3 DVD COLLECTOR'S EMBOSSED TIN!
Price For Both: $54.59

Show availability and shipping details

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Walter Cronkite Remembers - 3 DVD COLLECTOR'S EMBOSSED TIN!

Walter Cronkite Remembers - 3 DVD COLLECTOR'S EMBOSSED TIN!

DVD ~ Walter Cronkite
4.7 out of 5 stars (11)  $31.49
Front Row at the White House : My Life and Times

Front Row at the White House : My Life and Times

by Helen Thomas
3.9 out of 5 stars (44)  $10.88
Tell Me a Story: Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television

Tell Me a Story: Fifty Years and 60 Minutes in Television

by Don Hewitt
4.0 out of 5 stars (11)  $12.82
This Just In : What I Couldn't Tell You on TV

This Just In : What I Couldn't Tell You on TV

by Bob Schieffer
4.2 out of 5 stars (51) 
Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism (Turning Points in History)

Edward R. Murrow and the Birth of Broadcast Journalism (Turning Points in History)

by Bob Edwards
4.2 out of 5 stars (20)  $13.57
› Explore similar items

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Cronkite's prose has the same stately cadences as that famous voice, reinforcing the grandfatherly persona that made him America's most trusted anchorman until his retirement in 1981. He also has a dry sense of humor, so his memoirs are dignified rather than pompous. Chapters on the early days of radio and television broadcasting are colorful; the more episodic later portions contain some good anecdotes, plus a frank account of Cronkite's dismay at the direction CBS News took under Van Gordon Sauter. Just the book you'd expect from Uncle Walter.

From Publishers Weekly

Written with wry, self-deprecating humor, Cronkite's memoir gives us the veteran TV newscaster at his most relaxed and ingratiating as he recounts dozens of his scoops: for example, tracking down and interviewing Takeo Yoshikawa, the Japanese spy who was strategic to the attack on Pearl Harbor, and Daniel Ellsberg when he was in hiding after stealing the Pentagon's secret Vietnam War plans (the Pentagon Papers). Tough-minded, Missouri-born Cronkite, who apprenticed on Houston papers, has been eyewitness to, or participant in, many of the century's momentous events. As United Press war correspondent, he covered D-Day, the Allied air war and the Nuremberg trial. He joined CBS as a Korean War correspondent, and as CBS Evening News anchor for almost two decades (he retired in 1981, pushed out, he says, by a new management more interested in infotainment than substance), he reported on the civil rights movement, NASA's first moon walk, the John Kennedy assassination, freedom struggles in South Africa. Peppered with personal encounters with presidents from FDR to Nixon, plus close-ups of Nazi Hermann Goring, Douglas MacArthur, Castro, Begin and many others, Cronkite's crisp narrative charts the metamorphosis of network television into the defining medium of American consciousness. He also lets loose brickbats on the contemporary scene, bemoaning the "ridiculously small" volume of television news and the superficial quality of political coverage ("The debates are a part of the unconscionable fraud that our political campaigns have become, and it is a wonder that the networks continue to cooperate in their presentation"). Photos not seen by PW. BOMC main selection. Available on cassette and CD from Random House Audio. (Dec.) FYI: On November 4, the date this review is appearing, Cronkite celebrates his 80th birthday.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 400 pages
  • Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (November 27, 1996)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0394578791
  • ISBN-13: 978-0394578798
  • Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #446,035 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

More About the Author

Walter Cronkite
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

› Visit Amazon's Walter Cronkite Page
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
IF, AS THEY SAY, the threat of the hangman's noose has a powerful way of focusing one's attention, the same can be said of pregnancy. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
oil column, anchor desk
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, White House, Kansas City, United States, Air Force, Walter Cronkite, Prime Minister, South Africa, Soviet Union, Lyndon Johnson, John Kennedy, Vietnam War, Oval Office, President Johnson, The Morning Show, Van Dyke, President Kennedy, Miss Jung, New London, South Vietnam, Tel Aviv, American Embassy, Bill Paley, Dan Rather, President Roosevelt
New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Front Flap | First Pages | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 12 books:
See all 12 books this book cites
 
3 books cite this book:

Books on Related Topics (learn more)
 
This Just In by Bob Schieffer
 

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 
(2)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
(1)
Agree with these tags?

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store

If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store. Learn more
 

Customer Reviews

54 Reviews
5 star:
 (19)
4 star:
 (18)
3 star:
 (6)
2 star:
 (6)
1 star:
 (5)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (54 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Good, light read., November 29, 2000
By A Customer
This review is from: A Reporter's Life (Paperback)
I've always regarded Walter Cronkite simply a news-writer/wire service reporter/voice-over narrater/anchorman-presenter. I think he purposely reflects this same idea in his title, A REPORTER'S LIFE -- nothing more, nothing less. His memoir is written similiary in a frank, concise, matter-of-fact style, and is unpretentious (most mercifully). A blue-collar reporter; I was born, went to school here, got a job at the local paper there, went overseas and covered the war, did some radio work, went to TV, retired, and here's what I think of network news today... (That's all). Don't look for any insights or deep introspections. For instance; I was truly interested to know his thoughts, feelings, and dealings with Ed Murrow and The Boys, and how he won CBS news from them. Walt only devoted 2 short paragraphs bascially saying: They were editorialists, and I was more front page news. (That's it?) How about working with Eric Severide? A sentence here, another one there. (Yep, that's it).

The first half of the book is devoted to Walt growing up, working in newspapers, becoming a wire service reporter, and covering the war in Europe. This is some good stuff. Again, nothing intensive, but interesting. The second half of the book is about his television career with CBS. If you grew up watching Walt during this time, well -- there's not many surprises. He repeats how he choked up announcing JFK's death, calling the Vietnam War to be a lost cause, learning of LBJ's death with a phone call live on the air, watching Dan Rather getting slugged (woohoo!) at the Democratic Convention, etc. In the last chapter Walt gives his views on the state of network news and how it can be improved. To me, it was kind of sad. He doesn't fully appreciate or understand that it's dead. Yes, he gives some credit to the alternative news sources and how they're contributing to the demise of network news; but with all the 24 hour cable news channels, satellite TV, 2 channels of CSPAN; and the NY Times, Washington Post, BBC, foreign newspapers, and wire services on the Internet -- why would anyone want to suffer under the 3 network Ted Baxters we have now?

All in all, it is a light, entertaining, and enjoyable read. It's like sitting with a favorite, jovial uncle at the dinner table, while he recounts his life's adventures.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Big disappointment, especially the audiobook - it's NOT him!, March 22, 2003
By John Wilpers (Marshfield, MA United States) - See all my reviews
Wouldn't you think that the audio-book of Walter Cronkite's biography would be read by Mr. Cronkite himself? His is one of the most recognizable voices of the 20th Century? But no, it's narrated by a nasal, sing-song voice that doesn't remotely resemble the master. And the book itself is a tremendous disappointment. I couldn't agree more with the review by Funkytown. I got this book with high hopes, having grown up listening every night to Mr. Cronkite wrap up the day's events. His nightly broadcast was a family ritual, and my family were CBS devotees for years. I looked forward to as cogent a review of his time on the world stage as he gave us daily in the news. Instead, the book jumps from subject to subject with no coherence other than it appears that one thought seems to trigger the next. It was like Mr. Cronkite was dictating into a tape recorder as he sat on the deck of his sailboat enjoying a stream-of-conscious recollection. The use of chapters in this book is laughable. It's a shame, too, as there are lots of terrific nuggets here. You just have to have the patience to wade through it, making chronological and thematic connections on your own. Don't waste money on it....go to your public library.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Strong look at Journalism and 20th Century USA, May 6, 2005
This is an engaging biography by the CBS journalist/broadcaster who was once called "the most trusted man in America." The book pretty much matches Cronkite's TV image; decent, fatherly, and surprisingly modest.

Cronkite recalls his boyhood in Missouri (he was born in 1916) and Texas, his early reportorial days, and his long career with CBS radio and television. Cronkite also takes a long look at U.S. history during the post-war period, including the end of World War II, the Cold War, Civil Rights, Vietnam, etc. He also devotes strong attention (and opinions) to America's Presidents in that era. Most would consider Cronkite politically centrist, but some conservatives (including TV's mythical Archie Bunker) despised his pro-UN, and eventual anti-Vietnam view. Readers get a feel for what it's like to have access to the high and mighty, as well as the sense that politicians see reporters as people to be used for their ends. Cronkite also reveals such personal issues as his family life, and his love for race cars and speed.

This is an informative and engaging read, yet a bit shallow for one who moved in the constellations of power. Perhaps that comes from the author's status as America's anchorman, a task requiring one to strive to be calm, level and centered.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews  
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
Ad
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Behind the News
In the eyes of many, Walter Cronkite epitomizes what the television news broadcaster should be. He was reasonably objective and made it a goal to stay objective. Read more
Published 2 months ago by JMack

1.0 out of 5 stars Same Old Same Old
A superficial concern about others.

A superficial concern about right and wrong.

Same old boring selfishness.

Published 4 months ago by Jim O'Brien

4.0 out of 5 stars Walter Cronkite
A Reporter's Life is a very well written story of Walter Cronkite's life and adventures as a reporter for various organizations, usually CBS. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Janice H. Boucher

4.0 out of 5 stars A Reporter's Life
The book was apparently stored incorrectly because the back cover jutted out more than the front cover (had an underbite). Read more
Published 6 months ago by Joe R. Mcauley

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but not edited well
This book was full of historical stuff + interesting stories about Mr. Cronkite's life. My only complaint is the book jumps around too much. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Fuzzy Lizard

4.0 out of 5 stars Getting to know the man who witnessed history
In this self-effacing odyssey through the life and memories of the legendary CBS news anchorman, Walter Cronkite takes his readers back in time with him as he recalls with... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Fern Sidman

4.0 out of 5 stars A decent work
Walter Cronkite who at one time was among the most famous and celebrated Americans tells his life- story . He does this with the dry and clean prose of the good reporter. Read more
Published on March 8, 2008 by Shalom Freedman

5.0 out of 5 stars Modern American History Through the Eyes of Walter Cronkite
To live the life of Walter Cronkite is to live a thousand years. For nearly half a decade Walter Cronkite served as the voice of reason to millions of Americans who looked to his... Read more
Published on May 19, 2006 by Matthew P. Arsenault

5.0 out of 5 stars "Revolutionary forces are already at work [outside the US] today, and they have man's dreams on their side."
In a fascinating and thought-provoking autobiography (1996), Walter Cronkite reflects on his career in journalism, from the earliest days in which he listened to radio on a... Read more
Published on April 4, 2006 by Mary Whipple

4.0 out of 5 stars very good but could be better organized
For me who watched Walter Cronkite almost every night from the 1960's to the 1980's when Dan Rather took over, this is most enlightening book. Read more
Published on February 19, 2006 by Andrew C. LING

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   

So You'd Like to...

Create a guide

Product Information from the Amapedia Community

Beta (What's this?)

Look for Similar Items by Category

Look for Similar Items by Subject

Search Books by subject:




















i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...
 

Feedback

If you need help or have a question for Customer Service, contact us.
 Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
Is there any other feedback you would like to provide?

Your comments can help make our site better for everyone.


Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.