Books: Politics and Sprigs

UP TO Now—Alfred Emanuel Smith—Viking ($5).

Marketable commodities are the private opinions, the private reminiscences of public men. Alfred Emanuel Smith, office holder for more than 30 years, never forgets the voting, book-buying public's predilection for personal revelations. In his newly-published autobiography he garnishes the heavy fare of his legislative and executive doings with inviting sprigs of intimacy.

Boyhood in Manhattan. "I remember as a small boy going with my father to the Atlantic Garden and listening to the lady musicians. . . . My sister and I were given chocolate to drink, and huge slices of cake, while the elders drank their...