I Remember
CBS network anchor Rather ( The Camera Never Blinks ) has not had a particularly good press, but that may change with publication of this autobiography, written with the author of Bay of Pigs. Born in 1931 into a family headed by a blue-collar worker and living on the wrong side of the bayou in Houston, the future newsman grew up during the Depression and World War II; with his father steadily employed, there was no actual privation. As a youth Rather suffered a long siege of rheumatic fever, then curable only by bed rest, which ended his dream of becoming a football star. He had a large, interesting and supportive extended family, its members recalled affectionately here. The book takes Rather to his departure for Sam Houston State Teachers College in Huntsville, Tex., leaving material for a sequel. The general effect is warm and engagingly anecdotal. The style, however, is strange: it consists almost exclusively of short sentences with no polysyllabic words, as if to reinforce the impression that Rather is just folks. Photos not seen by PW.Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.