Britain's dean of portrait painters is a fierce-looking, bearded 75-year-old named Augustus John. In his long life he has been almost everywhere, has known and painted practically everyone he considered worth knowing, and he loves to talk about it. Having finally arrived at what he lightly calls the "Halfway House" of life, John thought it was time to get his memories in print. Next week his book will be on sale in U.S. shops. Chiaroscuro: Fragments of Autobiography (Pellegrini & Cudahy: $5) is indeed one of the most fragmentary autobiographies ever written. But the fragments he has gathered up sometimes...
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