Books: Genetics

AN AMERICAN IN PARIS—Janet Planner—Simon & Schuster ($2.50).

At least twice a month for 15 years, Paris letters signed "Genêt" have appeared in The New Yorker and have been among the best things in it. In a style so well turned that epigrams seemed pure condescension, Genêt has written of everything Parisian from the dernier cri to the dernière crise without slipping from a fashionable tone.

Genêt's real name is Janet Planner. She was born in Indianapolis 47 years ago. In her teens Janet tried the University of Chicago; tried by the University, she returned to Indianapolis. From 1915 to 1917 she held...