Books: Wall Street to Mud Hut

COME, MY BELOVED (311 pp.)—Pearl Buck—John Day ($3.75).

EVERY PROBLEM HAS A SOLUTION FIND

IT. By order of Railroad Tycoon David MacArd, this slogan hung in every office of Manhattan's towering MacArd Building. It was not only his recipe for riches, but the nearest he could get to a religious conviction. So when his adored wife died, Multimillionaire MacArd turned instinctively to his slogan and asked: What solution exists to the problem of death? And where shall I find it?

MacArd moved in the direction of an answer when he took passage to India at the turn of the 20th century. One walk through...