Russell Baker

This Pulitzer Prize-winner is "the saddest, funniest, most tragical yet comical picture of coming of age in the U.S.A. in the Depresson years and World War II that has ever been written."?Harrison Salisbury.

Growing Up

In this perfect companion for anyone beguiled by memoirs or embarking on writing one, nine distinguished authors -- Russell Baker, Jill Ker Conway, Annie Dillard, Ian Frazier, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Alfred Kazin, Frank McCourt, Toni Morrison, and Eileen Simpson -- reflect on the writing process.

The Art and Craft of Memoir

Inventing the Truth

So this is Depravity

The Pulitzer Prize–winning memoir about coming of age in America between the world wars: “So warm, so likable and so disarmingly funny” (The New York Times). Ranging from the backwoods of Virginia to a New Jersey commuter town to the city of Baltimore, this remarkable memoir recounts Russell Baker’s experience of growing up in pre–World War II America, before he went on to a celebrated career in journalism. With poignant, humorous tales of powerful love, awkward sex, and courage in the face of adversity, Baker reveals how he helped his mother and family through the Great Depression by delivering papers and hustling subscriptions to the Saturday Evening Post—a job which introduced him to bullies, mentors, and heroes who endured this national disaster with hard work and good cheer. Called “a treasure” by Anne Tyler and “a blessing” by Time magazine, this autobiography is a modern-day classic—“a wondrous book [with scenes] as funny and touching as Mark Twain’s” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). “In lovely, haunting prose, he has told a story that is deeply in the American grain.” —The Washington Post Book World “A terrific book.” —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A collection of entertaining limericks, ballads, lyrics, double dactyls, and more conventional poems by such masters as Ogden Nash, Phyllis McGinley, Anthony Hecht, E.B. White, Edward Lear and John Updike

The Norton Book of Light Verse

Haunted by his experiences as a first responder when the twin towers fell, detective Jeremy Winslow and his family relocated to the Midwest. While inviting a widow to a church social, the Winslow family meet detective Chris Anderson. Chris is traumatized by his war with the notorious Crimson Dragons, an Oklahoma City crime syndicate. Chris now believes he is the real Sherlock Holmes. In Jeremy Winslow, Chris has found his Watson. When Chris is hired to investigate a series of infant kidnappings, he brings Jeremy along on the case. And when the case endangers Jeremy's own family, he wonders if his own faith and sanity will survive.

The Delusional Detective

George Orwell

"The animals on Farmer Jones's farm revolt in a move led by the pigs, and drive out the humans. The pigs become the leaders, in spite of the fact that their government was meant to be 'classless.' The other animals soon find that they are suffering varying degrees of slavery. A totalitarian state slowly evolves in which 'all animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others.' this is a biting satire aimed at communism." Shapiro. Fic for youth. 3rd edition.

A Fairy Story

Animal Farm

Eight prominent American writers recall the pleasures and problems of writing a memoir.

Every Other Weekend: My Fight for Access is a look back on the authoras experiences regarding divorce and visitation with his son, including intervention by the court system and social services. Access to a child can easily be prevented by an ex-spouse, especially for the sake of revenge. Meanwhile, the reunion process afterwards can take a toll on all parties, especially the innocent child.

My Fight for Access

Every Other Weekend

A “superb [and] often hilarious” memoir of a life in journalism, from the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Growing Up (The New York Times Book Review). “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.” —Publishers Weekly “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.”—Library Journal “A wonderful book.” —Kirkus Reviews

The Good Times

Frank McCourt

Toni Morrison

Eileen Simpson

Alfred Kazin

Annie Dillard

Henry Louis Gates

Ian Frazier

Jill Ker Conway

The author of On Writing Well presents stories and advice on the writing process from Frank McCourt, Annie Dillard, and many more. For anyone who enjoys reading memoirs—or is thinking about writing one—this collection offers a master class from nine distinguished authors: Russell Baker, Jill Ker Conway, Annie Dillard, Ian Frazier, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Alfred Kazin, Frank McCourt, Toni Morrison, and Eileen Simpson. “Annie Dillard talks of her Pittsburgh childhood and her moment of waking to the world outside. Russell Baker explains why his first draft of Growing Up was so bad that he had to start over again. Alfred Kazin finds that writing about his Brooklyn childhood connected him with the great tradition of Emerson and Whitman. Toni Morrison tells why her fiction uses not only family history but the slave narratives of her people. Lewis Thomas traces the evolution of his singular self from primeval bacteria to contemporary scientist whose drive to be useful is the most fundamental of all biological necessities. . . . Delightful and instructive.” —Library Journal

Russell Baker

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