Royko in Love

Street-smart, wickedly funny, piercingly perceptive, and eloquent enough to win a Pulitzer Prize, Mike Royko continues to have legions of devoted fans who still wonder OC what Royko would have saidOCO about some outrageous piece of news. One thing he hardly ever wrote or talked about, though, was his private life, especially the time he shared with his first wife, Carol. She was the love of his life, and her premature death at the age of forty-four shook him to his soul. MikeOCOs unforgettable public tribute to Carol was a heart-wrenching column written on what would have been her forty-fifth birthday, OC November Farewell.OCO His most famous and requested piece, it was the end of an untold story.
"Royko in Love" offers that storyOCOs moving and utterly beguiling beginning in letters that OC MickOCO Royko, then a young airman, wrote to his childhood sweetheart, Carol Duckman. He had been in love with her since they were kids on ChicagoOCOs northwest side, but she was a beauty and he was, well, anything but. Before leaving for Korea, he was crushed to hear she was getting married, but after returning to Blaine Air Force Base in Washington, he learned she was getting a divorce. Mick soon began to woo Carol in a stream of letters that are as fervent as they are funny. Collected here for the first time, RoykoOCOs letters to Carol are a mixture of sweet seduction, sarcastic observations on military life, a Chicago kidOCOs wry view of rural folk, the pain of self-doubt, and the fear of losing what is finally so close, but literally so far. His only weapons against CarolOCOs many suitors were his pen, his ardor, and his brilliance. And they won her heart."