Books: Who Kills Cock Robin?

ENEMIES OF PROMISE (265 pp.)—Cyrit Connolly—Macmillan ($4).

Ten years ago England's waspish Critic Cyril Connolly attempted to figure out how to write a book that would attain the "immortality" of lasting for ten years—nine years longer, say, than the average novel. His own book on the subject, Enemies of Promise, has made the grade: first published in 1938, it has become a familiar, if not a favorite, of many English and U.S. intellectuals. It has now been reissued, and the story it tells is as interesting and topical as ever.

Connolly is chiefly concerned with "the artist," and with what makes him tick,...