In this wonderful autobiography-funny, moving, exciting, reflective, history haunted-a man writes in valedictory to his striving and achieving twenties and thirties, and to this nation's sunny years under Truman, Eisenhower, and Kennedy. That the man is Russell Baker, author of the classic Growing Up, assures us of the treasures to be mined in this successor volume. From newsboy to college paper, to police reporter, rewrite man, and White House correspondent for the Baltimore Sun, to New York Times Washington bureau reporter and columnist: in outline these stages may read like a Who's Who entry of steady rise in a spectacular journalistic career. It is the flesh that Russell Baker puts on these bare bones that belies the ease of it all and invites the reader to share his pitfalls and triumphs, his joys and hard lessons, from the mean and often homicidal streets of Baltimore to a seat at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II, and from watching Ike fish to sharing the calculated secrets of LBJ.

拉塞尔·贝克（Russell Baker），美国著名记者、专栏作家。1925年出生于弗吉尼亚莫里森村，1947年受雇于《巴的摩尔太阳报》开始记者生涯，1954年加入《纽约时报》，负责报道白宫、国会和国家政治新闻。1962年起开设《观察栏》专栏，专门评论国政。1979年，贝克以其犀利机智的政论文章获得普利策评论奖。1983年又因其童年自传《飞呀，少年！》（Growing Up）再次赢得普利策传记奖。

拉塞尔·贝克在美国有“当代马克·吐温”之称，其文字朴实优美、幽默睿智。他的童年传记《飞呀，少年！》出版后曾连续72周高居畅销书排行榜前列，先后被多个国家翻译引进，直至今天仍然在全球各地畅销，总发行量已超过220万册，创下美国出版史上的一个奇迹。而这本《我相信，青春永不磨灭！》（The Good Times）是他续写的青春故事，讲述他从小报童成长为著名专栏作家的职业奋斗历程。