"In this triumphant memoir, Carl Bernstein, the Pulitzer Prize-winning coauthor of ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN and pioneer of investigative journalism, recalls his beginnings as an audacious teenage newspaper reporter in the nation's capital-a winning tale of scrapes, gumshoeing, and American bedlam"-- Bernstein's decades of reporting and incisive commentary have explored the use and abuse of power at the highest levels and fundamentally reshaped the reporting of news. But in 1960, inquisitive, self-taught, and truant, Bernstein landed a job as a copyboy at the Evening Star. Here he establishes the origins of his journalistic career as he chronicles the Kennedy era, hones his street smarts, and creates his expansive belief in what real reporting should be. -- adapted from jacket Provided by publisher.

Includes index.

Prologue -- The door -- Adrenaline -- Initiation -- Knowledge -- Dry run -- Legman -- Warthog -- Night beat -- Hot type -- Inaugural -- Misfit -- Lift-off -- Dictation -- Local news -- Crises -- Off campus -- Ambition -- America -- Monumental -- Growing up -- Civil rights -- Summer -- Ford Holabird -- General assignment -- The wheel -- Flack -- Leavings -- Epilogue.