Books: The Editors Like

A JOURNEY TO GREATNESSby David Ewen. (Holt, $5.00.) Since George Gershwin seems to have had little personal life, this biography is largely a chronicle of his professional development, a story quite astonishing enough in itself.

SERGEI RACHMANINOFFby Sergei Bertensson and Jay Leyda.(New York University Press, $6.50.) Solid, forthright life of the pianist-conductor-composer, well buttressed with letters and the memories of surviving friends and relatives.

THE THREE TRIALS OF OSCAR WILDEby H. Montgomery Hyde. (University Books, $5.00.) A crisp account of the circumstances which led Wilde to sue the Marquess of Queensberrv for libel, followed by partial transcripts (missing material summarized) of the court actions which ultimately landed Oscar himself in jail. A highly entertaining book, complications deftly elucidated and the unsavory aspects of this most unsavory case handled with tact.

A HOUSE OF CHILDRENby Joyce Cary. (Harper, $3.50.) Plotless reminiscences of an Irish childhood, with emphasis on the ability of happy children to bounce like rubber balls from pointless terror to wild delight, self-absorbed and indomitable throughout.

SOME INNER FURYby Kamala Markandaya. (John Day, $3.50.) What might have been merely another never-the-twain-shall-meet love story is given distinction by sound characterization and a lively description of life and politics in an upper-class Hindu family.

MANO MAJRAby Khushwant Singh. (Grove, $1.25.) The Moslem-Sikh clash on the Pakistan border, with bad behavior and good intentions on both sides. The story is simple, tartly ironic, and the characters have a ferocious vitality.

THE HORSE SOLDIERSby Harold Sinclair. (Harper, $3.95.) This hard-riding historical novel, based on one of the more extraordinary episodes of the Civil War, is a fine piece of sophisticated derring-do.

FOLLOW THE WHALEby Ivan T. Sanderson. (Little, Brown, $6.00).) Whaling is a trade almost as old as mankind, and Mr. Sanderson covers its whole history with the thoroughness of the scientist he is, and the imagination of the novelist one suspects he may yet become.

THE ANTARCTIC CHALLENGEDby Admiral Lord Mountevans. (John de Graff, $4.50.) The author, a veteran explorer himself, summarizes the adventures and achievements of all the known expeditions to Antarctica.

AYORAMAby Raymond de Coccola and Paul King. (Oxford University Press, $4.50.) Father de Coccola says little about his missionary work, merely presenting his Eskimo friends as he saw them in action — grim, surprising, funny, and ultimately a tough, clever, likable race.