A modern day classic filled with perfect turns of phrase and traces of quiet wisdom, Growing Up is a coming of age story that is 'the stuff of American legend' (The Washington Post Book World). Here, too, are schoolyard bullies, great teachers, and the everyday heroes and heroines of the Depression who faced disaster with good cheer as they tried to muddle through. We meet the people who influenced Baker's early life: his strong and loving mother, his bold little sister Doris, the awesome matriarch Ida Rebecca and her twelve sons. From 'Growing Up,' by Russell Baker At the age of eighty my mother had her last bad fall, and after that her mind wandered free through time. His is a story of adversity and courage, the poignancy of love and the awkwardness of sex, of family bonds and family tensions. 'Magical….He has taken such raw, potentially wrenching material and made of it a story so warm, so likable, and so disarmingly funny…a work of original biographical art.'-The New York Times In this heartfelt memoir, groundbreaking Pulitzer-winning New York Times columnist Russell Baker traces his youth from the backwoods mountains of Virginia to a New Jersey commuter town to the Depression-shadowed landscape of Baltimore. Russell Baker's Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiography about growing up in America during the Great Depression. Growing Up Key Figures Russell Baker Baker first decides he wants to become a writer at the age of eleven. a work of original, biographical art'.-Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times. I picked the book up, figuring it must be a pretty good. The book came out 26 years ago and Baker has faded from the public spotlight since his retirement in 1998 from the New York Times, where he was a popular columnist.

It is the story of adversity and courage, of the poignancy of love and the awkwardness of sex, of family bonds and family tensions. On a recent trip to the local Barnes & Noble, I was surprised to see Russell Baker's Growing Up in the autobiography section.

This Pulitzer Prize winning autobiography is Russell Baker's unforgettable story of growing up in America between the world wars.

Growing Up by Russell Baker