In his new book, “Jimmy Breslin: The Man Who Told the Truth,” author Rich Esposito pens the first biography of the renowned columnist and native New Yorker.

Esposito writes that Breslin “was a reporter and poet equally. He was able to get you to see and also to feel what the victims of poverty and injustice were stuck with … and he did that by putting you in the scene with them. To feel through their eyes – what was in their hearts.”

During a Tuesday interview on "Mornings On 1" coinciding with the book’s release, Esposito emphasized how Breslin’s life mirrored the tone of his writing.

“In many ways, Jimmy lived his column. That was his whole life, from the minute he woke up to the minute he went to sleep,” he said. “He just was going to work for you, and it was a pretty phenomenal thing.”

Esposito, who sifted through thousands of Breslin’s columns, noted how Breslin had a unique ability to connect directly and managed to “just talk to you, the reader.”