Books the Editors Like
OLD QUESTIONS
The Nan Patterson Case BY NEWMAN LEVY
Did the luscious lady shoot the villain in that hansom cab? Mr. Levy, son of her defending lawyer, doesn’t know, but he has done a fine job of reconstructing one of New York’s gaudier murder trials, SIMON AND SCHUSTER, $3.75.
Poltergeists BY SACHEVERELL SITWELL
Whether you believe in the noisy ghosts or think it’s all the work of little Willie, these accounts of notable infestations, plus the author’s beguiling speculations, should prove rewarding, UNIVERSITY, $5.75.
The Vanishing EvangelistBY LATELY THOMAS
When Aimee Semple McPherson, that chiffonswathed bride of holiness, vanished into the Pacific Ocean and reappeared weeks later with a yarn about kidnaping, the state of California took action as lunatic as the situation itself. Mr. Thomas docs the affair hilarious justice. VIKING, $4.95.
ARTISTS’ LIVES
Pasternak: A Pictorial Biography
BY GERD RUGE
A brief, businesslike text and a great many pictures of one of the most photogenic writers of our time, also of his friends, relatives, enemies, and colleagues, not to mention a few Soviet tanks, MOGUAW-IULL, $5.00.
Joy Ride BY DWYGHT TAYLOR
Another reminiscence of the nineteen twenties by one who was there, vastly amusing and, in its pseudofrivolous way, more enlightening than most of the earnest studies made of the period, PUTNAM’S, $3.95.
Puccini BY MOSCO CARNER
Puccini’s career was too successful to provide any suspense, but the author does his best with Freudian speculation and rows about librettos. His discussion of the structure and characteristics of the operas is detailed and solidly useful. KNOPF, $7.50.
Picasso BY ROLAND PENROSE
Mr. Penrose, trained as a painter, active in the art world, and a friend of Picasso’s, has written an admirably inclusive and knowing book on Picasso’s life and work. HARPER, $6.00.
Theophile Gautier: His Life and Times BY JOANNA RICHARDSON
Poet, critic, and painter, Gautier managed to get his hand into almost everything that went on in France during his sixty years, and his biographer necessarily proceeds at a good clip, COWARD-MCCANN, $5.00.