ANDREW JACKSON: PORTRAIT OF A PRESIDENTMarquis JamesBobbs Merrill ($5).
With his Pulitzer-Prizewinning biography of Sam Houston (The Raven) and the first volume of a biography on Andrew Jackson (Andrew Jackson: The Border Captain), Marquis James has made a name for himself as one of the few conscientious U. S. historians whose books give the historical novelists a run for their money. Last week, in his concluding volume on Andrew Jackson, Author James offers a frankly-hinted explanation: ''Many good writers," he avers, "who now and again dash showily into the biographical lists are careless,...