This is Russell Baker's story of growing up in America between the world wars--in the backwoods mountains of Virginia, in a New Jersey commuter town, and finally in the Depression-shadowed urban landscape of Baltimore....

This Pulitzer Prize winning autobiography is Russell Baker's unforgettable story of growing up in America between the world wars. It is the story of adversity and courage, of the poignancy of love and the awkwardness of sex, of family bonds and family tensions. "Magical . . . a work of original, biographical art".--Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times....