Books: Unaccustomed As I Am

FAMOUS LAST WORDS (208 pp.) — Barnaby Conrad—Doubleday ($3.95).

Apparently having nothing new to say about bullfighting, Barnaby Conrad, the ex-matador (now a 39-year-old man of letters), has collected the dying speeches, curses and quips of the great. As books of this kind frequently do, the volume has a preface by Clifton Fadiman, containing his own favorite examples of words uttered while the toes turned cold (and thought up, one suspects in some cases, well ahead of time). Samples:

Marcus Livius Drusus (?-109 B.C.), Roman tribune: "When will the republic find again a citizen like me?"

Isapwo Muksika Crowfoot (?-1890), Blackfoot chief: "What is...

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