Celebrated as “the most remarkable talk-show host on TV ever” by TV Guide and “master of the mike” by Time magazine, for a half-century the world’s most influential figures have been telling their story to Larry King. Now the man in suspenders shares his riveting and inspiring story, from his humble roots in Depression-era Brooklyn to the heights of celebrity as host of CNN’s Larry King Live.


Before Larry befriended presidents and iconic entertainers, he was Larry Zeiger, known to his Brooklyn friends as “Zeke the Greek the Mouthpiece” because he never stopped talking. If his friends ever missed a Brooklyn Dodgers game they could always go to Larry hours later to hear the radio broadcast recounted—pitch by pitch. After the painful loss of his father at age nine, Larry’s family was forced to go on welfare and his first pair of glasses was purchased by the government. But determined to fulfill his dream of working in radio, as a young man Larry moved to Miami where, through sheer persistence and against all odds, he landed his first job as a radio host, launching the unparalleled career of “Larry King.”


In the fifty years since his first broadcast, Larry has spent time with the 20th and 21st centuries’ major political and cultural luminaries, all of whom he will write about candidly in the book. To name just a few of his interview subjects: 2008 presidential candidates Barack Obama, John McCain, and Hillary Clinton; Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and George W. Bush and their wives; political and cultural leaders Martin Luther King, Jr., Bobby Kennedy, Nelson Mandela, Eleanor Roosevelt, Malcom X, and the Dalai Lama; legendary entertainers Frank Sinatra, Oprah Winfrey, Johnny Carson, Elizabeth Taylor, Paul McCartney, Jane Fonda, Bono, and Madonna; celebrated comedians such as Robin Williams, Steve Martin, and Jerry Seinfeld; noted athletes such as Muhammad Ali, Lance Armstrong, and Pete Rose; controversial figures such Jack Kevorkian, Monica Lewinsky, and O.J. Simpson—and many more, all viewed through Larry’s one-of-a-kind perspective.


Larry will also delve deeply into his extraordinary personal odyssey. HeÂ’s lost jobs, had a three-pack-a-day smoking habit, been down to his last $2 when he won an $11,000 trifecta at the racetrack, had a heart attack and quintuple bypass surgery, stopped smoking, founded a heart foundation that has raised millions and assisted thousands, and now, at the age of 74, has recently gotten thrown out of a Little League game for arguing a call at second base in defense of his nine-year-old son.


Filled with delightfully evocative personal anecdotes and behind-the-scenes observations on some of our most important world figures, What am I Doing Here? will be devoured by Larry KingÂ’s millions of fans worldwide.