Mike Royko pulled no punches. A hardnosed reporter with a keen sense of social justice and a murderous pen, he became, in Jimmy Breslin's words, "the best journalist of his time". Royko was by all accounts a difficult man, who would chew out his assistants every morning and retire to the Billy Goat Tavern every night. But his writing was magic. No one captured Chicago like Mike Royko. No one wrote with his honesty, his toughness, his passion, and his humor.In this, the first comprehensive biography of one of the most important Chicagoans of the century, Dick Ciccone, a long-time colleague and editor of Royko's at the Chicago Tribune, captures Royko at his best and at his worst. We see Royko sweating over columns minutes before deadline. We see him romancing his wife. We see him torturing his legmen. We see him barbequeing ribs and riffing on politicians.