Books: Oregon Cyclone

I NEVER GREW UP (316 pp.)—Cobma Wright—Prentice-Hall ($3.75).

"Youth," says Cobina Wright Sr., in one of the more thoughtful moments in her autobiography, "is, in truth, wasted on the young."

From this premise* and from the title of her book, I Never Grew Up, it might be assumed that the whole life of the celebrated belle (and managing mother of an equally celebrated one) has been wasted. The assumption would be both hasty and unkind. In its own gossipy fashion, Author Wright's autobiography is something of a personal history of the 20th century. It is...