Life Itself A Memoir

by Ebert, Roger

• ISBN13: 9780446584968
• ISBN10: 0446584967
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-09-04
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Summary

Roger Ebert is the best-known film critic of our time. He has been reviewing films for theChicago Sun-Timessince 1967, and was the first film critic ever to win a Pulitzer Prize. He has appeared on television for four decades, including twenty-three years as cohost ofSiskel & Ebert at the Movies. In 2006, complications from thyroid cancer treatment resulted in the loss of his ability to eat, drink, or speak. But with the loss of his voice, Ebert has only become a more prolific and influential writer. And now, for the first time, he tells the full, dramatic story of his life and career. Roger Ebert's journalism carried him on a path far from his nearly idyllic childhood in Urbana, Illinois. It is a journey that began as a reporter for his local daily, and took him to Chicago, where he was unexpectedly given the job of film critic for theSun-Times, launching a lifetime's adventures. In this candid, personal history, Ebert chronicles it all: his loves, losses, and obsessions; his struggle and recovery from alcoholism; his marriage; his politics; and his spiritual beliefs. He writes about his years at theSun-Times, his colorful newspaper friends, and his life-changing collaboration with Gene Siskel. He remembers his friendships with Studs Terkel, Mike Royko, Oprah Winfrey, and Russ Meyer (for whom he wroteBeyond the Valley of the Dollsand an ill-fated Sex Pistols movie). He shares his insights into movie stars and directors like John Wayne, Werner Herzog, and Martin Scorsese. This is a story that only Roger Ebert could tell. Filled with the same deep insight, dry wit, and sharp observations that his readers have long cherished, this is more than a memoir-it is a singular, warm-hearted, inspiring look at life itself. "I believe that if, at the end, according to our abilities, we have done something to make others a little happier, and something to make ourselves a little happier, that is about the best we can do. To make others less happy is a crime. To make ourselves unhappy is where all crime starts. We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try. I didn't always know this, and am happy I lived long enough to find it out." -fromLIFE ITSELF

Author Biography

Roger Ebert won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1975, and his reviews were syndicated in newspapers around the world. He was cohost of Siskel & Ebert and Ebert & Roeper for thirty-three years, and was a managing editor and reviewer for Ebert Presents At the Movies. He was the author of seventeen books, including Scorsese by Ebert and Awake in the Dark.

Roger Ebert was also an honorary member of the Directors Guild of America. He received the Carl Sandburg Literary Award of the Chicago Public Library and won the Webby Awards Person of the Year in 2010. His website, rogerebert.com, receives 110 million visits a year. He lived with his wife, Chaz Hammelsmith Ebert, in Chicago. Roger Ebert passed away in 2013.

Table of Contents

Memory	p. 1
410 East Washington	p. 9
My People	p. 16
My Old Man	p. 23
My Mother	p. 34
St. Mary's	p. 43
Dan-Dan the Yo-Yo Man	p. 49
Summer	p. 53
Car, Table, Counter, or TakHomaSak	p. 60
Blackie	p. 64
My Vocation	p. 69
Newspaper Days	p. 75
High School	p. 84
University	p. 90
The Daily mini	p. 100
My Trip to Hollywood	p. 106
Cape Town	p. 109
London Perambulating	p. 115
Eyrie Mansion	p. 120
All by Myself Alone	p. 132
Sun-Times	p. 139
My New Job	p. 151
Zonka	p. 161
McHugh	p. 175
O'Rourke's	p. 181
Leisure of the Theory Class	p. 187
Alcoholism	p. 193
Books Do Furnish a Room	p. 202
Russ Meyer	p. 206
The Interviewer	p. 219
Lee Marvin	p. 225
Robert Mitchum	p. 232
Big John Wayne	p. 247
"Irving! Brang 'em on!"	p. 255
Ingmar Bergman	p. 266
Martin Scorsese	p. 274
"Fiddle on the corner where the quarters are"	p. 283
"I wasn't popular when people thought I was popular"	p. 288
Werner Herzog	p. 295
Bill Nack	p. 301
The Sweetest Set of Wheels in Town	p. 306
Gene Siskel	p. 312
Jugular	p. 324
The Talk Shows	p. 331
When I Laughed in Study Hall	p. 341
My Romances	p. 345
Chaz	p. 361
Good News and Bad News	p. 372
Nil by Mouth	p. 377
Musing My Mind	p. 384
Putting a New Face on Things	p. 389
High School Reunion	p. 393
Studs	p. 397
My Last Words	p. 402
How I Believe in God	p. 406
Go Gently	p. 412
Acknowledgments	p. 417
Index	p. 419
About the Author	p. 436
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