When he finally earned a place in the local paper’s newsroom, his recollections are radiant with tales of covering local sports and the thrill of meeting deadlines, all as part of a well-oiled team. He formed a makeshift official newspaper for his neighborhood and sending out individual acceptance letters to the few people who supported his boyhood fledgling stamp company. From the start, writing was Ebert’s way to connect with people. His childhood assumes a kind of mythic quality, the source of a life, relayed with wonder, that naturally gravitated toward the cinema, where similarly anything was possible.

Although he intersperses a few anecdotes from his later life, particularly some storybook tales from his marriage to his wife Chaz, he doesn’t single out any particular review before he arrives at the critic part of his chronology. The first 22 chapters of Ebert’s account of his own life, before the one titled “My New Job” where he describes the genesis of his title at the Chicago Sun-Times, focus on a number of more personal areas beyond the career that would make him a household name. He gives career advice to the young Oprah Winfrey, hangs out with the old Robert Mitchum, and scripts the movie Beyond the Valley of the Dolls for skinflick meister Russ Meyer, whose own account of their collaboration makes you suspect that Ebert is giving us the PG version.If there’s any doubt that Roger Ebert had talent as a screenwriter, look at the fact that the chapter on his first days as a film critic comes exactly a third of the way through his memoir, “ Life Itself:” a perfect act break. His career took off quickly - he'd won the Pulitzer Prize by age 33 - and he began accumulating a vast storehouse of anecdotes. He was all of 25 years old, and he seized the job like a brass ring. But his life took a very different turn in 1967 when, much to his surprise, he was named film critic for The Chicago Sun-Times.

The drinking problem was one Ebert himself would share - and eventually conquer.Ī lifelong liberal, Ebert had dreamed of being a feisty newspaper columnist like Mike Royko. He had an electrician father, Walter, whom he obviously adored and a mother, Annabel, who treated him kindly but also scared him with her anger, especially once she became an alcoholic.

He was born 69 years ago in Urbana, Ill., and enjoyed a classic Middle American childhood, idyllic but tinged with darkness. Your purchase helps support NPR programming. Close overlay Buy Featured Book Title Life Itself Subtitle A Memoir Author Roger Ebert

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