cover image The Rush Limbaugh Story: Talent on Loan from God: An Unauthorized Biography

The Rush Limbaugh Story: Talent on Loan from God: An Unauthorized Biography

Paul D. Colford. St. Martin's Press, $19.95 (242pp) ISBN 978-0-312-09906-0

Colford, whose weekly radio column appears in New York Newsday and the Los Angeles Times , tracked down Limbaugh's past shows (and past wife) to fashion an entertaining, balanced biography of this outsized phenomenon of the airwaves. Although the book is unauthorized, ``Rusty'' did not stop the author from interviewing his mother, brother and others close to him. We follow Limbaugh as he defies his father and leaves his Missouri home to find work as a disc jockey, failing time and again before striking it rich in 1988. Now at age 42, he can boast of talk shows and a bestselling book, The Way Things Ought to Be , as well as millions of fans, including former President Bush, for whose reelection Limbaugh campaigned. Observing that his subject seems to have nothing ``resembling a personal life,'' Colford depicts Limbaugh with a sympathy his detractors in liberal political circles aren't likely to share. Photos not seen by PW . (Oct.)