The Good Times

Chronicles the growth of Baker's journalistic career, from newsboy, to police reporter and White House correspondent, to columnist, during the 1950s and early 1960s

Following his bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-winning Growing Up , 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. BOMC alternate.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This is a sequel to Baker's Pulitzer Prize-winning Growing Up ( LJ 10/1/82). Here, he wryly recounts the mischances and lucky breaks that have guided his journalism career. 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. Baker comes to realize his forte is thoughtful and satiric observations rather than scoops, and in this book and in his "Observer" columns for the New York Times , he proves he is right. The vibrant personalities of Baker's wife and mother, featured prominently in Growing Up, get short shrift here, although Baker notes that his mother's constant refrain of "If there's one thing I can't stand, Russell, it's a quitter," has been the propelling force of his life. This should be popular with general readers and especially those interested in journalism.
- Judy Quinn, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.