Russell Baker | |
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| Born | Russell Wayne Baker (1925-08-14)August 14, 1925 Loudoun County, Virginia, U.S. |
| Died | January 21, 2019(2019-01-21) (aged 93) Leesburg, Virginia, U.S. |
| Education | Baltimore City College ("magnet" – high school),Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore) |
| Occupations |
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| Notable work | Growing Up |
| Awards | Pulitzer Prize (1979, 1983) |
Russell Wayne Baker (August 14, 1925 – January 21, 2019) was an American journalist, narrator, writer ofPulitzer Prize-winning satirical commentary and self-critical prose, and author of Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiographyGrowing Up (1983).[1] He was a columnist forThe New York Times from 1962 to 1998, and hosted thePBS showMasterpiece Theatre from 1993 to 2004. TheForbes Media Guide Five Hundred, 1994 stated: "Baker, thanks to his singular gift of treating serious, even tragic events and trends with gentle humor, has become an American institution."[2]
Born inLoudoun County, Virginia,[3] Baker was the son of Benjamin Rex Baker and Lucy Elizabeth (née Robinson).[4] His father died of complications of diabetes, and his destitute mother moved with some of her children to her brother's house in New Jersey. At the age of eleven, as a self-professed "bump on a log", Baker decided to become a writer because he figured, "what writers did couldn't even be classified as work".[5]
He attended and graduated fromBaltimore City College in 1943, a"magnet" secondary school with selective admissions and a specialized curriculum focusing on thehumanities,social studies,liberal arts andclassical studies. City College is the third oldest public high school in America founded 1839. The school had a major influence on the young Baker. He wrote extensively about his experiences at the nicknamed "Castle on the Hill" in his 1982 memoirGrowing Up.
Leaving high school at "City" in 1943, he earned a scholarship at nearbyJohns Hopkins University, studying for a year before leaving to join theUnited States Navy as a pilot duringWorld War II. He left the service in 1945, returning to Hopkins for two more years earning a degree in English in 1947.
Shortly after graduating from Johns Hopkins in 1947, Baker took a job atThe Evening Sun, a paper oriented towards blue collar / working-class readers with the largest circulation in town. Baker started out on the night police beat. Baker described in his first memoirs learning his way around and working his way up experiencing the journalism trade among many legendary old-timers. He soon improved enough to be sent overseas to Britain asThe Sun's Londoncorrespondent in 1952.[3]
After covering theWhite House,United States Congress, and theUnited States Department of State forThe New York Times for eight years, Baker wrote the nationally syndicated Observer column for the newspaper from 1962 to 1998; initially oriented toward politics, the column began to encompass other subjects after he relocated to New York City in 1974. During his long career as an essayist, journalist, and biographer, he was a regular contributor to national periodicals such asThe New York Times Magazine,Sports Illustrated,The Saturday Evening Post, andMcCalls. He was elected a fellow of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1993.[6]
Baker wrote or edited seventeen books. Baker's first Pulitzer Prize was awarded to him for distinguished commentary for his Observer columns (1979) and the second one was for his autobiography,Growing Up (1982); he is one of only six people to have been awarded a Pulitzer Prize for both Arts & Letters (for his autobiography) and Journalism (for his column). He wrote a sequel to his autobiography in 1989, calledThe Good Times. His other works includeAn American in Washington (1961),No Cause for Panic (1964),Poor Russell's Almanac (1972),Looking Back: Heroes, Rascals, and Other Icons of the American Imagination (2002), and various anthologies of his columns.[7] He edited the anthologiesThe Norton Book of Light Verse (1986) andRussell Baker's Book of American Humor (1993).
Baker wrote the libretto for the 1979 musical playHome Again, Home Again, starringRonny Cox, with music byCy Coleman, lyrics by Barbara Fried, choreography byOnna White, and direction byGene Saks.[8][9] After an unsuccessful tryout at theAmerican Shakespeare Theatre inStratford, Connecticut, the show closed inToronto and never made it toBroadway. "That was a great experience," Baker said in a 1994 interview with theHartford Courant. "Truly dreadful, but fun. I was sorry [the show] folded because I was having such a good time. But once is enough."[10]
In 1993, Baker replacedAlistair Cooke (1908–2004), (longtimeBriton host and American observer / correspondent for theBritish Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) as the regular host and commentator of thePublic Broadcasting Service (PBS-TV) long-running drama television seriesMasterpiece Theatre, continuing for a little over a decade until 2004. "That's talking-head stuff," he said. "Television is harder than I thought it was. I can't bear to look at myself. I fancied that I was an exceedingly charming, witty and handsome young man, and here's this fidgeting old fellow whose hair is parted on the wrong side."[11]
In 1995, he narrated theRic Burns documentaryThe Way West about American western expansion forThe American Experience long-running documentary series (then in its ninth season) on thePublic Broadcasting Service (PBS-TV).[12][13]
In 1950, Baker married Miriam Nash, who died four years before him in 2015. The couple had four children, Allen, Kasia, Michael, and Phyllis.[1][3]
Baker died at his longtime home inLeesburg, Virginia (Loudoun County), on January 21, 2019, after complications following a fall.[3] He was age 93.
Neil Postman, in the preface toConscientious Objections, described Baker as "like some fourth century citizen ofRome who is amused and intrigued by the Empire's collapse but who still cares enough to mock the stupidities that are hastening its end. He is, in my opinion, a precious national resource, and as long as he does not get his own television show, America will remain stronger than Russia." (1991, xii)
| Preceded by | Host ofMasterpiece Theatre 1993–2004 | Succeeded by |
Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography (1976–2000) | ||
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