Early Royko: Up Against It in Chicago

by Mike Royko

1967 First Edition of Mike Royko's first book, Up Against It. Introduction by Bill Mauldin, a Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist for The Sun Times.At the time this was written, Royko had been writing for The Chicago Daily News for seven years. This is a collection of some of what he considered his best work at that time.Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 68-31464

Genres: History, Essays

216 pages

First published January 1, 1967

About the author

Pulitzer prize columnist, Mike Royko was nationally known for his caustic sarcasm. Over his 30 year career he wrote for three leading Chicago newspapers, "The Daily News", "The Sun-Times", and "The Chicago Tribune", and was nationally syndicated.

The Polish-Ukranian son of a cab driver, Royko grew up on Chicago's southside and never left the city. At age 64, he died in Chicago of complications arising from a brain aneurysm in the spring of 1997. Royko was survived by his wife, Judy, a 9-year-old son, Sam, and 4-year-old daughter, Kate, as well as two grown children from his first marriage. His first wife, Carol, died in 1979.

Reviews

[Jon-david Mafia Hairdresser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Royko, one of the great theologians and writers of any century. I would read anything Rick Kogan told me to read and he was the dude who turned me on to this Chicago author. Thanks Rick! Rick Kogan

[Killian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A solid sampling of this fantastic columnist's work and one which covers enough material to appeal to a variety of interests.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Newspaper columns as art. The humor here is cutting and timeless.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up from a U of Chicago book sale. I am glad I found it. I enjoyed revisiting some of Royko's early columns and seeing that besides being a good writer he was both funny and a wiseass.

[rob!! · Rating 5 out of 5]

read this obscure book of newspaper columns around four or five times cover-to-cover during a particularly dark time in my life a few years back and it is still the best and funniest writing ever put to print full stop