A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity

Unabridged
Author: Bill O'Reilly
Narrator: Bill O'Reilly
Genres: Biographies
Publisher: Random House (Audio)
Date: September 2008
Length: 7 hours
Ratings:
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Overview

The year was 1957, the month September, and I had just turned eight years old. Dwight Eisenhower was President, but in my life it was the diminutive, intense Sister Mary Lurana who ruled, at least in the third-grade class where I was held captive. For reasons you will soon understand, my parents had remanded me to the penal institution of St. Brigid’s School in Westbury, New York, a cruel and unusual punishment if there ever was one.

Already, I had barely survived my first two years at St. Brigid’s because I was, well, a little nitwit. Not satisfied with memorizing the Baltimore Catechism’s fine prose, which featured passages like “God made me to show his goodness and to make me happy with him in heaven,” I was constantly annoying my classmates and, of course, the no-nonsense Sister Lurana. With sixty overactive students in her class, she was understandably short on patience. For survival, she had also become quick on the draw.

Then it happened. One day I blurted out some dumb remark, and Sister Lurana was on me like a panther. Her black habit blocked out all distractions as she leaned down, looked me in the eye, and uttered words I have never forgotten: “William, you are a bold, fresh piece of humanity.”

And she was dead-on.

One day in 1957, in the third-grade classroom of St. Brigid’s parochial school, an exasperated Sister Mary Lurana bent over a restless young William O’Reilly and said, “William, you are a bold, fresh piece of humanity.” Little did she know that she was, early in his career as a troublemaker, defining the essence of Bill O’Reilly and providing him with the title of his brash and entertaining issues-based memoir.

And this time it’s personal. In his most intimate book yet, O’Reilly goes back in time to examine the people, places, and experiences that launched him on his journey from working-class kid to immensely influential television personality and bestselling author. Readers will learn how his traditional outlook was formed in the crucible of his family, his neighborhood, his church, and his schools, and how his views on America’s proper role in the world emerged from covering four wars on five continents over three-plus decades as a news correspondent. What will delight his numerous fans and surprise many others is the humor and self-deprecation with which he handles one of his core subjects: himself, and just how O’Reilly became O’Reilly.

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Author Details

Author Details

O'Reilly, Bill

"Born in Manhattan and raised in the suburb of Levittown, N.Y., Bill O'Reilly had a blue-collar, ethnic upbringing common in the Northeast. He attended Chaminade High School, and spent most of his childhood playing sports and annoying teachers.

O'Reilly went on to attend Marist College in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., where he wrote a column for the school newspaper and played football. In his junior year, O'Reilly was accepted into an overseas program, and studied at the University of London. He received a B.A. in history from Marist.

Upon graduation, O'Reilly began teaching at Monsignor Pace High School in a suburb of Miami. After two years, he returned to college and earned an M.A. in broadcast journalism from Boston University.

Then O'Reilly's television career began. His first stop was WNEP-TV in Scranton-Wilkes Barre, Pa. He then landed at WFAA-TV in Dallas, where he won a Dallas Press Club Award for excellence in investigative reporting. From Dallas, it was on to KMGH-TV in Denver, where O'Reilly won an Emmy for his coverage of a skyjacking. After two years in the Rocky Mountains, O'Reilly returned to the East Coast and joined WCBS-TV in New York City, where he won his second Emmy for an investigation of corrupt city marshals. O'Reilly was then promoted to the CBS network, where he reported on the wars in El Salvador and the Falkland Islands from his base in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

O'Reilly's career as an anchor began at the CBS and ABC affiliates in Boston, and continued at KATU-TV in Portland, Ore., before he joined ABC News as a correspondent in 1986. While at ABC, O'Reilly appeared on The World News broadcast nearly 100 times, and received a National Headliner Award for excellence in investigative reporting for a series of expos‚s on the Bradley fighting vehicle.

In February 1989, O'Reilly took over for David Frost as the anchor of the nationally syndicated program ""Inside Edition."" Under the O'Reilly reign, the program reached its ratings zenith, and was rarely out of the top 10 in syndicated rankings. While at ""Inside,"" O'Reilly was the first national anchor to broadcast live from the scene of the riots in Los Angeles, and was named reporter of the year by the New York Crime Victims organization.

During his 20-year career, O'Reilly has reported from all over the world, including Vietnam, Kuwait, Berlin, Brazil, Australia, Japan, France, Romania and England. In addition, O'Reilly penned an opinion column in The Boston Herald for seven years, and his articles have appeared in publications such as Newsweek magazine, The New York Times and Parade magazine.

O'Reilly was accepted into the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in early 1995. He subsequently resigned from his job at ""Inside Edition,"" and prepared to go back to school by writing his first book, ""Those Who Trespass: A Novel of Murder and Television,"" which is now in its second printing.

In the spring of 1996, O'Reilly received an M.A. in public policy from Harvard, and immediately took a job as the executive producer and anchor of ""The O'Reilly Factor"" on the then-new Fox News Channel. O'Reilly lives on Long Island, and still plays touch football with childhood friends. His other hobbies include collecting American historical documents, diving, and sleeping as much as possible. "