Harry Saltzgaver has written many stories in his distinguished newspaper career — but he has just written his best one.
It’s his own life story, told in a compelling autobiographical book, “No Walk in the Park: Newspapers, Booze and God.” Saltzgaver will host a book signing on Sunday afternoon, Jan. 11, at Rancho Los Alamitos, with every book sold making $5 for the rancho.
Saltzgaver, 72, tells an intensely candid, narrative tale of his life, starting with his “dirt poor” childhood in Colorado, his years as an alcoholic and, finally, his redemption in finding God.
At the outset, he calls his life “a bit of a roller coaster so hang on.”
Saltzgaver, the former executive editor of the Grunion Gazette, a weekly Long Beach newspaper and sister publication of the Press-Telegram, is right.
The cover of Harry Saltzgaver’s latest book, “No Walk in the Park: Newspapers, Booze and God.” (Courtesy of Harry Saltzgaver)
Columnists Rich Archbold, left, and Harry Saltzgaver were both honorees at the 2023 Long Beach Cancer League dinner, held at the Latin American Museum. (Photo courtesy of Long Beach Cancer League)
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The cover of Harry Saltzgaver’s latest book, “No Walk in the Park: Newspapers, Booze and God.” (Courtesy of Harry Saltzgaver)
His roller coaster life started when he was born in 1953 and raised in Arvada, a small town near Denver.
In addition to being poor, he also said his parents were “functional alcoholics.”
“By that, I mean they drank every day, but they didn’t miss work,” Saltzgaver wrote. “I inherited it all – the addictive personality, the ability to continue to function and the tendency to be maudlin rather than belligerent. I was pretty convinced that I could indulge and still be better at my job than those around me.
“A couple of shots of cheap bourbon or scotch could take the edge off at the end of the day,” he added, “and a few more would allow for a sort of sleep.”
Saltzger noted early on in his book that most alcoholics think no one around them knows what’s really going on and they are “getting away with it. I can’t think of a bigger self-deception.”
What about God and religion?
“It was all a scam, the opiate of the masses, right?” Saltzgaver writes. “I was too smart for that.”
His first journalism job was writing theater reviews on a manual typewriter in Creede, Colorado, a small silver mining town in the mountains. This developed into a deeper writing and editing job, and, he said, he learned a vital newspaper lesson:
“If you want a town to call a paper its own,” he said, you “better have a staff person living there.
“You have to be part of the community to call yourself a community newspaper.”
That led to jobs at the famous Greeley Tribune and, eventually, a move to California and the now-defunct Oxnard Press Courier. In 1992, he accepted an offer from John and Fran Blowitz to run the Grunion Gazette Newspapers.
During those early years, he also wrote in his book, there were three marriages that didn’t work out.
“If you want trauma, there was the time when my first wife said she was leaving with our 18-month-old son because I was ‘too boring,’” he said. “That does something to the ego, if you know what I mean.”
When he got the offer from the Blowitzes, Saltzgaver said, he knew nothing about Long Beach. But he looked at a map, saw that it was 20 miles south of Los Angeles and on the coast with a big port.
“Good enough for us,” he wrote.
Everything was fine in his new job – “learning to love Long Beach” — and being in charge of putting out the newspaper, he said. But one problem remained: he continued drinking.
After 10 years in Long Beach, his drinking led to a devastating DUI. Saltzgaver said this put his job, his fourth marriage, with Maria, and his life in general in jeopardy.
“Eventually, I calmed down enough to think about praying,” he wrote. “I say ‘think about’ praying because I was so bad God didn’t want anything to do with me. But I didn’t pray that He would get me out of the trouble I was in. I prayed, over and over again, that he would take away the compulsion I had to drink.”
Saltzgaver’s description of how he finally stopped drinking on Sept. 13, 2001, is inspirational.
So is his story of how he improved the Gazette newspapers.
Saltzgaver and I were cordial rivals for many years, dating back to when I was managing editor of the Press-Telegram and he arrived in Long Beach in 1992 to take over as editor of the Grunion.
When the Press-Telegram’s parent company bought the Gazette Newspapers a few years ago, Saltzgaver wrote about how funny that felt because for years, he would wake up every morning and try to figure out how he could beat out the bigger Press-Telegram in news coverage.
We had many friendly conversations about how often that happened or didn’t happen.
There is no question that Saltzgaver took the Grunion to a higher level of community journalism until he retired in 2023 to become managing editor of Sunstone Management, a venture capital firm in Irvine. He has continued writing his “Pinch of Salt” column, which is published weekly in the Press-Telegram and Grunion.
While editor of the Grunion, he served on various community boards and supported nonprofits, including starting a Christmas gift card drive for the clients at WomenShelter, a domestic violence rescue organization in Long Beach.
In his spare time, he also wrote another book, “Passionately Positive: The Beverly O’Neill Story,” about the former 12-year mayor of Long Beach. Another book, “20 Years of Salt in a 10-Pound Bag,” is a compilation of some of his best columns.
Saltzgaver’s latest book, meanwhile, chronicles his growing faith and recovery, along with his views on the state of journalism and the newspaper industry today. Despite difficult times, he praises dedicated journalists who are “continuing to fight the good fight, acting as watchdogs, truth tellers and information sources. It’s a real fight right now, with real consequences. I’m on their side.”
Saltzgaver writes with passion and honesty.
“I’m also committed to helping other alcoholics and addicts find the peace of sobriety in God’s house,” he wrote. “Corny? Maybe. But I believe it can be. I know I am a sinner, saved only through the grace of God. Thank you, God.”
Saltzgaver’s book is a page turner.
If you go
What: Book signing for “No Walk in the Park: Newspapers, Booze and God” by Harry Saltzgaver.
When: 1 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 11.
Where: Rancho Los Alamitos, 6400 E. Bixby Hill Road.
Information: saltymanpress.com.