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| Russell Baker (1925) Russell Baker, journalist, humorist, essayist, and biographer, has been charming readers for years with his astute political commentary. He has written or edited seventeen books, and was the author of the nationally syndicated "Observer" column for the New York Times from 1962 to 1998. Called by Robert Sherrill of the Washington Post Book Word, "the supreme satirist of this half-century," Baker is most famous for turning the daily gossip of most newspapers into the stuff of laugh-out-loud literature. Baker received his first Pulitzer Prize for distinguished commentary in 1979, in recognition of his "Observer" column, and the second in 1983 for his autobiography, Growing Up. In addition to his regular column and numerous books, Baker has also edited the anthologies, The Norton Book of Light Verse (1986) and Russell Baker's Book of American Humor (1993). Since 1993, he has been the regular host of the PBS television series, Masterpiece Theatre. Baker is a regular contributor to national periodicals such as The New York Times Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Saturday Evening Post, and McCalls. One of his columns, How to Hypnotize Yourself into Forgetting the Vietnam War, was dramatized and filmed by Eli Wallach for PBS. Looking Back has appeared in paperback in 2006. |