(4 of 4)
Best Reading
THE WOBBLIES, by Patrick Renshaw. The rise and fall of the Industrial Workers of the World as seen by a British scholar. There is a fine cast of anarchists and eccentrics, many of whom died at the hands of lynch mobs but not before saying a few memorable last words.
THE SAILOR FROM GIBRALTAR, by Marguerite Duras. An early novel that tells a shaggy-dog story about a mysterious woman, rich and beautiful, who roams the seven seas looking for a long-lost lover.
SELECTED LETTERS OF DYLAN THOMAS, edited by Constantine FitzGibbon. This careful sampling of the letters of the tragic poet-genius contains some of his best prose and proves that in his heart he was far less irresponsible than his outrageous behavior indicated.
A PRELUDE: LANDSCAPES, CHARACTERS AND CONVERSATIONS FROM THE EARLIER YEARS OF MY LIFE, by Edmund Wilson. The critic's early career as a wide-ranging man of letters, as well as the end of the cozy, pre-1914 world he grew up in, are both reflected in this fascinating memoir.
HAROLD NICOLSON: THE WAR YEARS, 1939-1945, VOL. II OF DIARIES AND LETTERS, edited by Nigel Nicolson. Author-Politician Nicolson's gossipy jottings not only give a crisp and sharp picture of embattled Britain, but establish him as a brilliant Boswell to his age and peers.
SNOW WHITE, by Donald Barthelme. The old fairy tale gets a dizzy and often funny retelling in an oddball and very contemporary idiom. As Snow White puts it: "Oh, I wish there were some words in the world that were not the words I always hear." She gets her wish.
Best Sellers
FICTION 1. The Arrangement, Kazan (1 last week)
2. The Eighth Day, Wilder (2)
3. The Chosen, Potok (5)
4. The Plot, Wallace (4)
5. Washington, D.C., Vidal (3)
6. Rosemary's Baby, Levin (6)
7. Tales of Manhattan, Auchincloss (8)
8. The Secret of Santa Vittoria, Crichton (7)
9. Capable of Honor, Drury (10) 10. Fathers, Gold
NONFICTION 1. The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell (2)
2. Everything But Money, Levenson (1)
3. The Death of a President, Manchester (3)
4. Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet, Stearn (4)
5. Anyone Can Make a Million, Shulman
6. Madame Sarah, Skinner (5)
7. Games People Play, Berne (6)
8. By-Line: Ernest Hemingway, White, ed.
9. A Man Called Lucy, Accoce and Quet (7)
10. At Ease: Stories I Tell to Friends, Eisenhower
-All times E.D.T.