(4 of 4)
I WILL TRY, by Legson Kayira. A youthful African from the Malawi Republic (formerly Nyasaland), the author decided in 1958 to "walk" from his home to the U.S. to find freedom and an education. Nearly two years and countless blisters later, he made it to a junior college in the state of Washington. He tells of his odyssey with perception, warmth and a sense of wonder that many more practiced writers would be hard put to duplicate.
SAM WARD, "KING OF THE LOBBY," by Lately Thomas. The story of the first real congressional lobbyist to flourish in post-Civil War Washington is a valuable history of the moneyed side of 19th century America. There were few great houses that did not welcome the ubiquitous Sam.
THE ERA OF RECONSTRUCTION, by Kenneth M. Stampp. Historian Stampp argues that the actions of the North during the Reconstruction, far from being reprisals against the South, were aimed at giving the Negro his full civil rights.
BACK TO CHINA, by Leslie Fiedler. A successful satire on the Saul Bellow school of fiction that overglorifies man as his brother's keeper. Fiedler's hero greedily absorbs the blame for distant misfortunes, while making life painful for those closely involved with him.
CASTLE KEEP, by William Eastlake. A company of miserable soldiers is desperately trying to sit out the Battle of the Bulge in an isolated castle. The Germans locate them, and the action begins.
Best Sellers
FICTION 1. Herzog, Bellow (1 last week) 2. Up the Down Staircase, Kaufman (2) 3. Don't Stop the Carnival, Wouk (5) 4. Hotel, Hailey (3) 5. The Man, Wallace (7) 6. Funeral in Berlin, Deighton (6) 7. The Ambassador, West (8) 8. Hurry Sundown, Gilden (4) 9. An American Dream, Mailer (9) 10. The Ordways, Humphrey (10)
NONFICTION 1. Markings, Hammarskjöld (1) 2. Journal of a Soul, Pope John XXIII (2) 3. The Founding Father, Whalen (3) 4. My Shadow Ran Fast, Sands (5) 5. Queen Victoria, Longford (4) 6. The Italians, Barzini (6) 7. Aly, Slater (9) 8. How to Be a Jewish Mother, Greenburg (7) 9. Design for Survival, Power 10. Sixpence in Her Shoe, McGinley (10)
* All times E.D.T.