Roger Ebert, Book Signing “Life Itself”

Pulitzer Prize winning film critic Roger Ebert will be signing copies of his book “Life Itself: A Memoir.”

Ebert, who won the Pulitzer Prize for criticism in 1975, was the co-host of At the Movies with Gene Siskel & Roger Ebert, and Ebert & Roeper for thirty-three years. The author of seventeen books, he is now the managing editor and reviewer for Ebert Presents At the Movies. His film reviews are syndicated to more than 200 U.S. newspapers, as well as worldwide by Universal Press Syndicate. As a result of complications from thyroid cancer, Ebert lost his ability to speak in 2006, but this has not slowed him down. He contributes as regularly as always to the Chicago Sun-Times and his own website rogerebert.com. Born and raised in Illinois, Ebert maintains a home in Chicago with his wife Chaz.

Book Signing Dates

9/22/11 7:00 PM
Barnes & Noble
Old Orchard Center
Skokie, IL.

9/24/11 2:00 PM
Barnes & Noble
West Webster Avenue
Chicago, IL.

From the Publisher
Roger Ebert is the best-known film critic of our time. He has been reviewing films for the Chicago Sun-Times since 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 of Siskel & 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 the Sun-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 the Sun-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 wrote Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and 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.”
-from LIFE ITSELF

Source: barnesandnoble.com