Columnist and author Russell Baker has died

Fans of journalism and PBS alike have reason to mourn today.

Russell Baker, a prize-winning columnist and host of Masterpiece Theater, died Monday at the age of ninety-three, according to the New York Times.

Baker’s “Observer” column ran in the Times and hundreds of other papers for nearly four decades, earning him fame and the first Pulitzer Prize for a humor columnist.

He also received a Pulitzer for his autobiography, Growing Up, which landed on both the bestseller list as well as the Washington Post’s list of best all-time depictions of American boyhood.

Read how Baker worked his way out of extreme poverty into national acclaim in the Times’s obituary.