Russell Baker, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author "whose whimsical, irreverent 'Observer' column appeared in the New York Times and hundreds of other newspapers for 36 years and turned a backwoods-born Virginian into one of America's most celebrated writers," died January 21. He was 93. The Times noted that Baker, "along with the syndicated columnist Art Buchwald (who died in 2007), was one of the best-known newspaper humorists of his time."
His son, Allen Baker, said, "We couldn’t have asked for a better father. He was a tender and loving man to his family.... He was just a Regular Joe with an extraordinary job."
After an early career that included stints as a police reporter, rewrite man and London correspondent for the Baltimore Sun, then a Washington correspondent for the Times, Baker became a columnist in 1962. He wrote nearly 5,000 "Observer" commentaries, which "generated a devoted following, critical acclaim and the 1979 Pulitzer for distinguished commentary, ended with his retirement in 1998." He subsequently wrote essays for the New York Review of Books, some of which were collected in Looking Back.
Regarding his columns, he once told Nora Ephron: "Nobody knew what the column was going to be. I didn't. The Times didn't."
Baker published 15 books, including many column collections: No Cause for Panic (1964), Baker's Dozen (1964), All Things Considered (1965), Poor Russell's Almanac (1972), So This Is Depravity (1980), and The Rescue of Miss Yaskell and Other Pipe Dreams (1983). Baker's memoir Growing Up (1982) earned his second Pulitzer, the 1983 prize for biography. Baker also won two George Polk Awards, for commentary in 1978 and career achievement in 1998, and many other honors. In addition, he edited the Norton Book of Light Verse (1986) and Russell Baker's Book of American Humor (1993).
"To a generation of television watchers, he was also a familiar face as the host of Masterpiece Theater on PBS from 1993 to 2004, having succeeded Alistair Cooke," the Times noted.
In a tribute, Pulitzer Prize administrator Dana Canedy observed that Baker "was one of the first American writers to win Pulitzer Prizes in both Journalism and Letters. He was a distinguished member of the Pulitzer Prize Board, who served as its chairman in 1994, and who delivered the keynote address at the Prizes's 75th Anniversary Celebration in 1991. We join the rest of the country in recalling and celebrating his life, characterized by wit, charm and erudition."
"The classiest and most talented," Maureen Dowd tweeted. "Once, when some male pols were giving me a hard time, he wrote me a letter telling me not to get overwhelmed: 'Just remember, these are all the same guys you went to high school with.' "
In his final "Observer" column, "A Few Words at the End," Baker wrote: "Thanks to newspapers. 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.... I could go on and on, and probably will somewhere sometime, but the time for this enterprise is up. Thanks for listening for the past three million words."