Royko in Love: Mike’s Letters to Carol

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 “what Royko would have said” 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. Mike’s unforgettable public tribute to Carol was a heart-wrenching column written on what would have been her forty-fifth birthday, “November Farewell.” His most famous and requested piece, it was the end of an untold story.

Royko in Love offers that story’s moving and utterly beguiling beginning in letters that “Mick” Royko, then a young airman, wrote to his childhood sweetheart, Carol Duckman. He had been in love with her since they were kids on Chicago’s 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, Royko’s letters to Carol are a mixture of sweet seduction, sarcastic observations on military life, a Chicago kid’s 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 Carol’s many suitors were his pen, his ardor, and his brilliance. And they won her heart.

街头智慧，邪恶的滑稽，敏锐的洞察力，以及足以赢得普利策奖的口才，迈克·罗伊科仍然拥有大批忠实的粉丝，他们仍然想知道罗伊科会对一些离谱的新闻说些什么。然而，有一件事他几乎没有写过或谈论过，那就是他的私生活，特别是他与第一任妻子卡罗尔共度的时光。她是他一生的挚爱，她在44岁时过早离世，震撼了他的灵魂。迈克对卡罗尔的刻骨铭心的公开致敬是一篇令人心碎的专栏，写在她45岁生日的《十一月告别》上。这是他最著名和最受欢迎的作品，也是一个不为人知的故事的结尾。

恋爱中的罗伊科 当时还是一名年轻飞行员的米克·罗伊科在给他儿时的心上人卡罗尔·达克曼的信中写道，这个故事非常感人，完全令人着迷。他在芝加哥西北部的孩提时代就爱上了她，但她是个美人，而他，嗯，绝不是。在前往韩国之前，他听说她要结婚了，感到很难过，但回到华盛顿的布莱恩空军基地后，他得知她要离婚了。米克很快就开始用一连串的信件向卡罗尔示好，这些信件既热情又有趣。这是罗伊科第一次在这里收集给卡罗尔的信，其中混合了甜蜜的诱惑，对军事生活的讽刺观察，一个芝加哥孩子对农村人的扭曲观点，自我怀疑的痛苦，以及对失去最终如此接近但却是如此遥远的东西的恐惧。他对抗卡罗尔众多追求者的唯一武器就是他的笔、他的热情和他的才华。他们赢得了她的心。