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A Life in Words: A Look Back at the College Career of Roger Ebert

Roger Ebert (Photo)
Roger Ebert, circa 1967. RS 26/4/1.

Zack Stein is a graduate student in Library and Information Science at the University of Illinois. He is currently completing a practicum at the Student Life and Culture Archives.

It has been nearly three years since the death of Roger Ebert. To most of us, he was one of the most famous film critics in history. He wrote weekly reviews for the Chicago Sun-Times, co-hosted a film review show with fellow Chicagoans Gene Siskel and Richard Roeper, and started his own film festival which has been held at the Virginia Theater in Champaign for the past 17 years. He also was the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. While film was his subject of expertise, his true drive and passion was his love affair with the written word. A voracious reader of science fiction and Henry James, Mr. Ebert knew from an early age that he wanted to be a writer. It was his time as the editor of the Daily Illini at the University of Illinois where he was able to exercise his writing to the fullest. It was also his abrasiveness that got him noticed and earned him the respect he deserved. Continue reading “A Life in Words: A Look Back at the College Career of Roger Ebert”