Books: Genius, Died Young*

SAVAGE MESSIAH—H. S. Ede—Knopf ($5).

You have probably heard little if anything of Henri Gaudier; you have doubtless heard nothing at all of Sophie Brzeska (pronounced "B'jeska"). After reading Savage Messiah you will wonder why not.

Death, as to many a young soldier, came to Henri Gaudier in 1915, when he was 23. He was good at fighting and had risen to be a sergeant. Far from being a professional soldier, he was an artist, a radical who had left France to escape his military service. But he was a whole-hogger: when he did...