Books: Bestseller Revisited, Jun. 13, 1960

BORN FREE (220 pp.)—Joy Adamson —Pantheon ($4.95).

As Christopher Smart, a mad 18th century English poet, remarked of the cat, in the most wonderful poem ever written on that elusive animal, "he is an instrument for the children to learn benevolence upon." In less poetic terms, the cat has the power of teaching manners to men when they are still children and most need the lesson. Unlike the dog ("beloved of hypocrites," as the astute aelurophile, Charles Baudelaire, observed), the cat will not tolerate abuse, and thus remains master in its own or anyone...

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