Russell Baker, born August 14, 1925 in Morrisonville, Virginia, a small town across the state line from Harper's Ferry, West Virginia and not far from Frederick, Maryland, is a notable American author and Hopkins alumnus. An essayist and journalist for many years, Baker won his first of two Pulitzer Prizes in 1979 for his writing for The New York Times. He is notably one of the longest-running columnists in the history of the New York Times and The Baltimore Sun. Three years later, his first autobiography, Growing Up, won Baker his second Pulitzer. The primary subject of this first autobiography, his most well-known work, was his childhood in Virginia during the Great Depression, while the focus of his second autobiography, Good Times, was his extensive and varied half-century career in journalism, including a close look at his time with The Baltimore Sun. In this oral history, Russell Baker describes his childhood, World War II, and his student days at Hopkins (1942-1947), specifically his courses in English, his work with the News-Letter, and his general impressions of Hopkins. This oral history is a part of the Mame Warren oral histories series.

Mindy Farber graduated with a B.A. in History from Johns Hopkins University in 1974, as part of the first class of undergraduate women to matriculate as freshmen. On campus, Farber was a founder of the Women's Liberation group, which later became the Women's Center. She earned her J.D. from the NYU School of Law, after which she embarked on a long legal career, serving as an attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Labor and as the Vice President of the Baltimore Women's Law Center. In this interview, Farber describes her time at Hopkins as one of the first female undergraduates and as a campus leader and activist. This oral history is part of the Hopkins Retrospective oral histories series.

Sidney Offit was born in 1928 in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated from Johns Hopkins with a B.A. in English literature in 1950 and went on to have a robust and successful career as an author. He is best known for his work as a children's author, including works such as The Adventures of Homer Fink and Soupbone. He is also known for his work on televised debates with Martin Abend on WNEW-TV. In this history, Offit discusses his time at Hopkins as well as his writing. This oral history is a part of the Mame Warren oral histories series.