Famed humorist, columnist Russell Baker dead at 93
Russell Baker, a beloved humorist, prolific writer and columnist for the New York Times who twice won the Pulitzer Prize, died Monday in Virginia. He was 93.
Baker — who, according to his son Allen, died of complications from a fall — was best known for his autobiography, “Growing Up,” about his early life in his native Baltimore, and also for his appearance as the host of “Masterpiece Theatre.”
His column, “Observer,” ran for decades in the Times and featured Baker’s dry wit and biting sense of humor on topics ranging from economics to everyday life in America.
“Listening to the economics wizards talk about the recession,” Baker opened a 1979 column, “you get the feeling that things are going to get better as soon as they get worse.”
He was awarded the 1979 Pulitzer Prize for his “Observer” columns, the first time the prize was given to a humorist for commentary.
He eventually wrote nearly 5,000 “Observer” entries — initially filing three commentaries a week until shortening that to two in 1988, the Times reported. His last column, published on Christmas Day 1998, was a love letter to his time spent reporting for newspapers.
“Thanks to newspapers,” he wrote, “I have made a four-hour visit to Afghanistan, have seen the Taj Mahal by moonlight, breakfasted at dawn on lamb and couscous while sitting by the marble pool of a Moorish palace in Morocco and once picked up a persistent family of fleas in the Balkans.”
In 1982, he published “Growing Up,” a memoir about his childhood during the Great Depression and American life leading up to and after World War II. The book sold more than a million copies and earned him his second Pulitzer Prize.
Baker became one of the best-known writers of his generation after a childhood spent in poverty.
He was born poor in Loudoun County, Virginia, in 1925. After the death of his father when Russell was 5, his family moved to Newark, NJ, before settling in Baltimore.
After serving in the Navy during WWII, Russell graduated from Johns Hopkins on the GI Bill, according to the Times.
He then launched his career as a newspaperman, serving as a night police beat reporter for the Baltimore Sun, but he eventually graduated to rewrite and to a London correspondent position at the paper.
He was hired by the Times in the mid-1950s and assigned several beats in Washington, according to the newspaper.
He was given the “Observer” column at the paper in 1962 after the Sun tried to lure him back by offering him a commentary position.
Baker is survived by three children, four grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
With Post wires