A Reporter's Life (Paperback, Reissued 1st Ed)

Personal and professional memories (though never intimate - that's not his style) from a man not much given to "self-oriented, navel-examining profundities," revealing a scrupulous, genial, generous spirit possessing a passionate, informed concern for the future of journalism. Cronkite recalls, reflects, opines, and offers some superlative stories to illustrate the way it was. He writes affectionately of his childhood and avuncularly of the young self in whom he locates the roots of the man he became. WW II was formative: He files United Press dispatches from Europe when "communications weren't difficult, they were nonexistent." Russia came next, and proved dreary and duplicitous; having a visceral aversion to regimentation, he chafed under the Soviet bureaucracy. His improvisational bent served him well in the early years of TV news: Cronkite, who once broadcast imaginary football games, extemporized easily from only a list of the day's stories. Recounting the low-tech escapades of that era, he's as frisky as he is thoughtful later, for instance when characterizing the presidents he's known (Carter had the best brain; Nixon, "the outstanding phoenix of our time," actually "seemed imbalanced" at moments), and when searchingly reviewing the Vietnam debacle from misguided genesis to sorry legacies ("a generation of officers later, there still lurks the belief that the media lost the war"). Cronkite consistently praises the CBS of his tenure for courage but hands Black Rock a black eye for its thrall to the bottom line: That news should "pay off" like other investments is a "travesty," he asserts, positing a public responsibility to support quality journalism. The "narrow intellectual crawl space" that is television news is ever more compressed; "Will the journalism center hold?" Cronkite bears out our trust in him as he bears wise witness to our collective adventures of the past half-century; he endears himself anew when he good-humoredly shares his own. (Kirkus Reviews)

"IMMEDIATELY ENGROSSING . . . [A] SPLENDID MEMOIR."
--The Wall Street Journal

"Run, don't walk to the nearest bookstore and treat yourself to the most heartwarming, nostalgia-producing book you will have read in many a year."
--Ann Landers

"Entertaining . . . The story of a modest man who succeeded extravagantly by remaining mostly himself. . . . His memoir is a short course on the flow of events in the second half of this century--events the world knows more about because of Walter Cronkite's work."
--The New York Times Book Review

A MAIN SELECTION OF THE BOOK-OF THE MONTH CLUB

General

Imprint:	Ballantine Books
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	October 1997
First published:	October 1997
Authors:	Walter Cronkite
Dimensions:	210 x 140 x 23mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback - Trade
Pages:	400
Edition:	Reissued 1st Ed
ISBN-13:	978-0-345-41103-7
Categories:	Books > Language & Literature > Biography & autobiography > Film, television, music, theatre Books > Business & Economics > Industry & industrial studies > Media, information & communication industries > Radio & television industry Books > Biography > Film, television, music, theatre Promotions
LSN:	0-345-41103-X
Barcode:	9780345411037

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