The “Chicago Style: Mike Royko and Windy City Journalism” exhibit at the Newberry Library. (Anne Ryan)

Mike Royko was Chicago’s Prince of Print.

At his peak, he wrote five columns a week that could lift underdogs or level overlords. In 1972, he won a Pulitzer Prize for Commentary at the Chicago Daily News, and he later wrote for the Sun-Times and the Tribune.

Royko was also complicated.

Among his many outstanding commentaries, some stand out for the wrong reasons. Those might include his retrograde view of Pride parades, his belittling the statutory rape charges against U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds and/or his unenlightened comments about women. Known as a Renaissance man, at times he seemed to have skipped the Enlightenment.

But I’m not here to praise or bury Royko or to get as much hate mail as he received. Just saying that the whole person needs to be considered.

At the Newberry Library, an intimate exhibition features the cream of the library’s Royko collection. It’s an introduction to the work of a cranky writer who could crank out quality columns at an amazing rate. He had a stellar lifetime batting average, even if he arguably struck out too often.

Royko lived through a changing industry, and he covered it, too. Forty years ago when Rupert Murdoch bought the Sun-Times, Royko jumped to the Tribune, noting: “No self-respecting fish would want to be wrapped in a Murdoch paper.”

WTTW News spoke with Sarah Boyd Alvarez, director of exhibitions at the Newberry Library, about the current exhibition “Chicago Style: Mike Royko and Windy City Journalism.”

WTTW News: It may seem obvious, but it’s worth reminding folks that Mike Royko wrote on a typewriter in the era of print journalism.

Sarah Boyd Alvarez: When he started working there were multiple major newspapers in the city, and some of them were printing twice a day. So, yes, paper was really paramount. He was working at a time that feels very distant for those of us who experience news and opinion today.

Items from the “Chicago Style: Mike Royko and Windy City Journalism” exhibit at the Newberry Library. (Marc Vitali / WTTW News)

How did he connect so strongly with his readers?

Boyd Alvarez: He wrote about city politics and sports teams and taverns and gun control and immigration. Things that matter to people, things they experienced. He was born and raised in Chicago himself. He wrote a lot about class and status and things that people still care about today, that we still have conversations about. I think people felt they were seen because he wrote about those things. He understood what mattered to people.

I appreciate his body of work, but when I moved here in the ‘80s he was writing columns trashing rap songs and women’s fashions. He didn’t always connect.

Boyd Alvarez: I think that’s true, and our intention is not to gloss over that. We were really intentional. This isn’t a memorial to Royko. It’s not a biographical show. This is really about someone who worked through and greatly impacted a period of journalism in Chicago — the center of journalism in this country — for a substantial amount of time. The way he wrote, the things he wrote about. And you’re right: He didn’t 100% hit the nail every time, but so much of what he wrote really resonated with readers, even when he had those missteps. But really the show is about how the journalism industry was changing, and how Mike Royko was part of that.

You also show part of his annotated manuscript for the book “Boss: Richard J. Daley of Chicago,” which gives us a glimpse into his writing process. How can visitors access more from the library’s Royko collection?

Boyd Alvarez: To use our reading rooms and get access to the collection, you just have to be 14 years old and sign up for a reader card. Our Royko papers don’t have every single one of his columns, but it’s a substantial amount, and we have a lot of material that he just kept and archived for himself in his home and office. He kept everything.

Anything else you’d like people to come away with?

Boyd Alvarez: There’s something about him that endures, and I think that’s why people look back on him and read his work. It still feels relevant today. My co-curator Bill Savage has been teaching him to undergraduates at Northwestern for two decades. Royko spoke to things that were topical on a national level. People loved his way with words, his sense of humor. He could really get to the heart of something, and he didn’t mince words.

“Chicago Style: Mike Royko and Windy City Journalism” is at the Newberry Library through Sept. 28.