Born into a tavern-owning family in a rough Polish neighborhood in the northwestern part of Chicago, Mike Royko (1932-1997) became one of America's premier political and social commentators.

In their work Chicago's Public Wits: A Chapter in the American Comic Spirit, Kenny William and Bernard Duffy detail the writings of Chicago humorists. During the heyday of such humor Peter Finley Dunn, known to almost all American history students as "Mr. Dooley," and George Ade dominated the Chicago newspapers with their columns capturing the wit of the streets and the insight of the ethnic communities. Mike Royko, once feature writer for the Chicago Sun-Times and its syndicated wire service (until Rupert Murdoch bought the Sun-Times) and later columnist for the Chicago Tribune, followed in this tradition. He was a columnist who understood the language of the streets and the neighborhoods, a writer with a sense of what troubles and...