Best Selling Books by Russell Baker

ISBN 0452254345 LCCN 838213.

A "superb [and] often hilarious" memoir of a life in journalism, from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Growing Up ( The New York Times Book Review). "Baker here recalls his years at the Baltimore Sun, where, on ''starvation wages,'' he worked on the police beat, as a rewrite man, feature writer and White House correspondent. Sent to London in 1953 to report on the coronation, he spent the happiest year of his life there as an innocent abroad. Moving to the New York Times and becoming a ''two-fisted drinker,'' he covered the Senate and the national political campaigns of 1956 and 1960, and, just as he was becoming bored with routine reporting and the obligation to keep judgments out of his stories, was offered the opportunity to write his own op-ed page column, ''The Observer.'' With its lively stories about journalists, Washington politicians and topical scandals, the book will delight Baker''s devotees—and significantly expand their already vast number." — Publishers Weekly "Aspiring writers will chuckle over Baker''s first, horrible day on police beat, his panicked interview with Evelyn Waugh, and his arrival at Queen Elizabeth''s coronation in top hat, tails, and brown-bag lunch." — Library Journal "A wonderful book." — Kirkus Reviews

"It is not that Russell Baker is funny, his genius is being so true that nothing remains but to laugh." —John Kenneth Galbraith "Baker, like Andy Rooney, looks into things that keep all our lives from being ordinary." —Chattanooga News-Free Press Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Russell Baker has charmed readers with his sharp humor and shrewd commentary. The indelible voice of the bestselling memoir GROWING UP compiles some of his greatest New York Times columns in this collection of honest, witty, and profound essays—reflecting on politics, society, and life in all its absurd glory.

A mad scientist and a boy who can''t do anything right team up to make a man.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Growing Up and host of Masterpiece Theatre, Russell Baker has long been a keen observer of American politics and culture. In these essays originally published in the New York Review of Books, Baker profiles a gallery of heroes and rascals who have stirred the American imagination. His subjects include the tragic gulf between the life and myth of Joe DiMaggio; the epic feud between Lyndon Johnson and Robert F. Kennedy; Barry Goldwater''s mercurial yet inspiring role in the rise of the American conservative movement; and more.

Humorous essays by the Pulitzer Prize–winning "supreme satirist" ( The Washington Post Book World). This collection of more than a hundred anecdotes and essays from the legendary journalist, New York Times columnist, and author of the bestselling memoir Growing Up offers wise and sharply witty reflections on an extraordinary array of topics, ranging from youth, wealth, the media, and the joy of anger to the difference between "dinner" and "supper." "Russell Baker is the Alka-Seltzer of the American experience. . . . The most effective comic relief available for the agonizing absurdities we encounter every day." — Houston Chronicle "When it comes to satire of a controlled but effervescent ferocity, nobody can touch Baker." — The Washington Post Book World

Short essays on the absurdities within U.S. culture, from the author''s column in the New York times.

For anyone beguiled by memoirs or embarking on writing one, this is filled with rich, sometimes outrageous, accounts from 9 acclaimed authors and it includes commentary on the writing process.

Satirical guide to Washington''s society, politics, institutions, bureaucracy, and Congress and the Presidency.

Genial slaps at the American scene.