Imus: America's Cowboy

In this comprehensive biography of radio host Don Imus, Tracy (Home Brewed: The Drew Carey Biography; Seinfeld: The Entire Domain) patches together the reminiscences of friends and enemies into a rollicking narrative of the sleazy but successful career of the ""I-Man."" Tracy posits that Imus, who grew up on an Arizona ranch, brought a cowboy ethos with him to Manhattan. By her lights, Imus is ""a rugged individualist living by his own code"" with a ""from-the-hip style."" Despite much-publicized alcohol and drug problems, and incidents like his 1969 firing for repeatedly making comments about ""spooks,"" after having held a mean-spirited ""Eldridge Cleaver look-alike contest,"" Imus has always bounced back. His incendiary--and oft-protested--rhetoric and his jousting with public figures who criticize him have garnered the talk-radio pioneer an audience of 15 million who listen to him on WFAN in New York, or in syndication on almost 100 stations. Whereas Jim Reed's recent biography, Everything Imus, is based almost exclusively on second-hand stories, Tracy has conducted extensive interviews, producing hilarious reflections and a balanced account. Leonard Shapiro of the Washington Post asks, following a presidential appearance on Imus in the Morning, ""Why would somebody like Bill Clinton, a decent human being, go on a show where there are constant references to genitals and Jews and derogatory comments about blacks?"" Mike Wallace of 60 Minutes takes up the defense, calling Imus rival Howard Stern ""a vulgar, vulgar man,"" and finding Imus ""infinitely more intelligent [and] infinitely more sensitive."" The shock jock who calls himself ""Howard Stern with a vocabulary"" will find little here to raise his famous ire. (Aug.)