SKETCHES FROM LIFE OF MEN I HAVE KNOWN (206 pp.)Dean AchesonHarper ($4).
Few public officials have seen more trouble, at home or abroad, than Dean Acheson, President Harry Truman's Secretary of State from 1949 to 1953. But no one would ever know it from this casual, rambling book of personal reminiscences, the kind of memories the wise diplomat "will cherish in his heart against the evil hours when no man may smile." He provides no new insights into the men and incidents he describes but displays the gossipy skill of an international name dropper who is entitled to be casual about the...