Growing Up.

BAKER, Russell [William Safire].

$250.00

Item Number: 128167

New York: Congdon & Weed, Inc., 1982.

First edition of the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times columnist’s enchanting memoir. Octavo, original half cloth, illustrated. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper in the year of publication, “To Bill Safire, who could have written it better – Russ Baker Sept 1982.” The recipient, William Safire was an important American author, columnist, journalist, and presidential speechwriter. He joined Nixon’s campaign for the 1960 Presidential race, and supported him again in 1968. After Nixon’s 1968 victory, Safire served as a speechwriter for him and Spiro Agnew. He authored several political columns in addition to his weekly column “On Language” in The New York Times Magazine from 1979 until the month of his death and authored two books on grammar and linguistics: The New Language of Politics (1968) and what Zimmer called Safire’s “magnum opus,” Safire’s Political Dictionary. Safire later served as a member of the Pulitzer Prize Board from 1995 to 2004 and in 2006 was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President George W. Bush. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Louise Fili.

Growing up is everything one would expect from a writer who, as Time declared in its cover story, has "raised humor to the realm of literature." Superbly entertaining, it is also a fine and true book about American life.