Books: Up & Easy

FROM FARM BOY TO FINANCIER—Frank A. Vanderlip and Boyden Sparks—Appleton-Century ($3.50).

The memoirs of millionaires are usually characterized by a sunny inconsistency that gives the general effect of smugness. If the hero is presented as rising in the world he must also be shown overcoming difficulties, but unless his most serious problems are fully described, the difficulties must always seem minor, the defeats astonishingly unimportant. Thus, most volumes of this kind create the impression that the acquisition of millions is about as hard and heroic as falling off a log.

The most remarkable feature...