Publishers Weekly articles from January 1996

Publishers Weekly archives from January 1996

Norton acquires Vermont's Countryman Press: acquisition, the first for the company since 1974, will broaden its backlist.
January 29, 1996... Acquisition, the first for the company since 1974, will broaden its backlist FOR ONLY THE SECOND TIME in its history, W.W. Norton has acquired a trade publishing company. The Countryman Press, based in Woodstock, Vermont, will become a...

Scholastic purchases Trumpet book clubs.(purchased from Bantam Doubleday Dell)(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... SCHOLASTIC INC. has tightened its already firm grip on the school book club market through the acquisition of Bantam Doubleday Dell's book club division, Trumpet. Terms of the acquisition, which brings all three Trumpet clubs to Scholastic,...

AMS has a strong third quarter.(Advanced Marketing Services shows a 33% increase in revenues for the quarter ended December 30, 1995)(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... IN CONTRAST TO generally sluggish sales reported by book retailers in the holiday season, Advanced Marketing Services said last week that revenues in its third quarter, ended Dec. 30, 1995, rose 33%, to $121.4 million. Net income in the quarter...

New offering will fund Noodle Kidoodle expansion. (new stock offering to generate $24 million for the specialty children's store)
January 29, 1996... NOODLE KIDOODLE expects to receive approximately $24 million from a new stock offering, and the company will use the proceeds to expand its children's speciality retailing concept, the company said in a recent registration statement filed with...

Indiana Univ. Press Web sale; 50% off. (publisher launches book sale over the World Wide Web; includes Web address)(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... EVERYBODY LOVES a sale, and the Indiana University Press has launched a pretty good one over the World Wide Web. Beginning in January the press is offering more than 200 backlist titles from 50% to 70% off the list price. And according to...

Hyperion beefs up with Oprah. (Hyperion Press signs deal with talk-show host Oprah Winfrey)
January 29, 1996... NOTHING WAS OFFICIAL as PW went to press, but it was learned that Hyperion is on the verge of announcing, perhaps later this week, that it has signed a mega-deal for a new Oprah Winfrey-backed book, similar to Knopf's 1994 blockbuster, In the...

Maxwell Sons cleared of fraud. (unanimous verdict was reached by an English jury to acquit Kevin and Ian Maxwell, sons of late Publisher Robert Maxwell, of conspiracy to defraud)(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... KEVIN AND 1AN Maxwell, sons of the late publisher Robert Maxwell, were cleared last week by a U.K. jury of conspiracy to defraud. After a very expensive trial--it cost more than 20 million pounds and lasted 131 days--the verdict was unanimous....

Black author, black publisher in contract dispute. (Iyanla Vanzant; Writers and Readers)
January 29, 1996... A PUBLIC DISPUTE has erupted between a newly prominent African American inspirational author and the small black house that first published her, after the house released another book against author Iyanla Vanzant's wishes. The conflict...

Clarion, Putnam win Newbery, Caldecott. (children's books authors Karen Cushman and Peggy Rathmann won the 1996 Newbery Award and the Randolph Caldecott Medal respectively)(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... KAREN CUSHMAN AND Peggy Rathmann were awarded the top honors in children's books on January 22. The 1996 John Newbery Award was given to Cushman for her novel The Midwife's Apprentice (Clarion), edited by Dinah Stevenson, and the 1996 Randolph...

Reader's Digest distribution moves to Putnam. (Putnam Publishing Group replaces Random House as the distributor of Reader's Digest's adult trade titles, effective Feb 20, 1995)(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... READER'S DIGEST has parted company with its longtime distributor of adult trade books, Random House. Effective February 20, the Putnam Publishing Group will assume retail distribution for all RD adult trade titles. The Random House Merchandise...

Court ruling backs Internet copyright protection. (the Church of Scientology's Religious Technology Center won a judgement against former member Arnaodo Lerma, who distributed church doctrine on the Internet)(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... REPRESENTATIVES OF THE Religious Technology Center, an affiliate of the Church of Scientology, are claiming a victory for copyright protection in cyberspace as the result of a ruling handed down earlier this month. The suit was brought by the...

Behind the bestsellers. (book publishing news)(Column)
January 29, 1996... STORMING THE VILLAGES Hillary Rodham Clinton may be getting a chilly reception in the capital, but outside the Beltway she and her book, It Takes a Village, were getting a very warm welcome during the first leg of her 1 l-city publicity...

Taiwan's book fair: hot enough to draw scalpers. (the Taipei International Book Fair)
January 29, 1996... THE TAIPEI INTERNATIONAL Book Fair attracted so many visitors last weekend that impromptu scalpers were helping move long attendee lines by selling tickets at over double the door price. Rex How, publisher of China Times Books and a major force...

Molly Cates on screen. (Jaffe/Braunstein Films acquired Mary Willis Walker's book 'The Red Scream' and its sequel 'Under the Beetle's Cellar')(Rights)(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... A standout in a crowded field, as indicated by its winning an Edgar for best mystery/suspense novel of 1994, Mary Willis Walker's The Red Scream is being acquired by Jaffe/Braunstein Films and co-producer Craig Baumgarten. The team has also...

Turning the tables. (Delia and Nora Ephron may collaborate on a screenplay of Delia's novel 'Hanging Up' for TrStar Pictures)(Rights)(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Look for a movie adaptation of Hanging Up, Delia Ephron's debut novel (Putnam). With her sister Nora, Delia co-wrote and co-produced Sleepless in Seattle. They will work together again on the new screenplay, which Nora is in line to direct for...

International Ripples. (Turkish copyright laws and Japanese translation rights are discussed)(Rights)(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... It's a new experience for Nurcihan Kesim, long a literary agent in Istanbul, and she doesn't like it: after receiving an assortment of books from an American publisher's foreign rights manager, and after obtaining an offer for one title, she...

New formats. (Kushner-Locke's interactive CD-ROM version of 'Pinocchio' will be manufactured and distributed by IBM)(Rights)(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Carlo Collodi never earned much from Pinocchio, first published in a magazine in 1880, but others have reaped fortunes. The Kushner-Locke Company, joining forces with IBM, hopes to cash in on interactive incarnations of the classic tale. IBM...

Thrills. (Paramount Pictures acquired novels by Stephen Kimball and Gloria Murphy)(Rights)(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Paramount hopes for thrills at the box office from two novels: Death Duty by Stephen Kimball, in which a young woman stumbles on a Foreign Service officers' plot to place their own in high government spots. A six-figure option has been taken...

Sad tidings of the new year: superstores, location and local economies drive some bookstores out of business.(includes related report of Taylors, Dallas, TX, downsizing)(Book Selling)(Industry Overview)
January 29, 1996... Superstores, location and local economies drive some bookstores out of business BOOKSTORES WITH SHAKY finances generally try to hang on at least through the Christmas season, the most profitable time of the year for most stores. So far,...

Posman buys Barnard Book Forum.(Eugene Posman, CEO of Posman Books and Collegiate Bookstores Associates; renames store Posman Books at Barnard College)(Book Selling)(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... EUGENE POSMAN, CEO of Posman Books, a trade bookstore near New York University in New York City, has bought Barnard Book Forum, a privately owned store that primarily serves students at Barnard College. Robert Fader, buyer at Posman Books, has...

Heading for Atlanta? (Olympics-related books)
January 29, 1996... Olympics-related books abound WHEN THE XXVI Olympiad opens this July in Atlanta, it will be a dream come true for the long-ambitious Georgia city. Indeed, some two million visitors are expected to visit the 31 Olympic venues in Atlanta and...

Something new up Quebecor's sleeve. (Quebecor Printing)
January 29, 1996... North America's second-largest printer gains nod for its binding innovation When Viking was getting ready to publish its lead title for fall '95, Bill Gates's The Road Ahead, it ran into a small pothole. Gates wanted to include a CD-ROM with...

Strike up the book.(symphony based on Debra Frasier's 'On the Day You Were Born')
January 29, 1996... An earth-friendly picture book becomes a symphony SOME BOOKS HAVE legs, as the show biz expression goes, but considering the various interpretations of the picture book On the Day You Were Born by Debra Frasier, which was originally published...

Americans in Paris.(Paris Salon du Livre book exhibition; includes related article on the American literature exhibition in the Salon's Antechamber)
January 29, 1996... FROM DAY ONE the organizers of the Paris Salon du Livre, which this spring is feting American publishers, authors and books in a big way, conceived the event as a national book bang--an opportunity to show and to sell to the city's book lovers,...

French publishing: a fast portrait.
January 29, 1996... Indeed, an introduction may be necessary American publishing folk don't often cover Paris these days, and if translations are rare on U.S. publishers' lists, translations from the French are all but nonexistent. That publishers on the other...

More American exhibitors at a bigger London book fair. (26th London International Book Fair)
January 29, 1996... THE NUMBER OF AMERICAN publishers exhibiting at the 26th London International Book Fair has more than doubled, according to fair organizers. This year's event, scheduled to take place March 17-19, will see a 20% increase in exhibition space, as...

Brave new world. (competition between guidebook publishers)
January 29, 1996... In the face of increased competition, guidebook publishers are adding new series and redesigning existing lines Publishers have long battled to claim larger chunks of the travel turf, but today's fiefdom campaigns are fiercer than ever....

On the go with booksellers: they note an imbalance in guidebook topics, and find that customers' trips are becoming more focused.(Category Closeup: Travel)
January 29, 1996... They note an imbalance in guidebook topics, and find that customers' trips are becoming more focused Booksellers specializing in travel guides and related volumes are in general agreement on two matters. First, their sales patterns reveal...

A traveler's guide to 1996 guides.(Directory)
January 29, 1996... ANTIQUE COLLECTORS' CLUB LTD Italian sites are an open book with Venice: An Architectural Guide (Jan., $17.95 paper) by Guido Zucconi--first in a new series; Guide to Paintings in Original Settings: Venice (Jan., $17.95), edited by T....

Philip Caputo: facing evil Vietnam to suburbia.(Interview)
January 29, 1996... CAPUTO: SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY A RUMOR OF WAR Ballantine, paperback, 1994 DELCORSO'S GALLERY HarperPerennial, paperback, 1991 PHILIP CAPUTO IS NOT one to stand still for long. After a yearlong tour of...

The Debt to Pleasure.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... John Lanchester. Holt, $20 (240p) ISBN 0-8050-4388-8 Diabolically clever, Lanchester's debut novel more than lives up to its advance hoopla. This purported "unconventional" cookbook-cum-memoir is a brilliant portrait of its narrator, a man...

Suspicious River.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Laura Kasischke. Houghton Mifflin, $21.95 (271p) ISBN 0-395-77397-0 Bestowing her gift of lyricism upon a sordid subject, acclaimed poet Kasischke (Wild Brides, 1992 winner of the Bobst Award for Emerging Writers) limns a young married...

Love, Again.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Doris Lessing. HarperCollins, $24 (368p) ISBN 0-06-017687-3 "The country of love... a desert of deprivation... longing and jealousy" is the focus of Lessing's newest novel . She charts her heroine's emotional landscape with assiduous...

Imagine Love.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Katherine Stone. Fawcett Columbine, $22 (432p) ISBN 0-449-90830-5 In one of those odd publishing confluences, Stone's (Pearl Moon) new novel is the second of early 1996 to feature a serial killer who slays on Valentine's Day (the other being...

Tiger's Tail.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Gus Lee. Knopf, $24 (288p) ISBN 0-679-43855-6 In the manner of Malraux, Greene and le Carre, Lee--in a wise and wrenching novel, beautifully told--uses the thriller form to explore the human condition. His compass is Army prosecutor Jackson...

The Return.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Joe de Mers. Dutton, $23.95 (416p) ISBN 0-525-94097-9 From recent novels, you'd think the Vatican was in the business of slaying souls, not saving them. Like Dan Cushman's Visitation (Forecasts, Jan. 18, 1995), this pseudonymous thriller--the...

Wherever That Great Heart May Be.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... W D. Wetherell. Univ. Press of New England, $19.95 (200p) ISBN 0-87451-721-4 Wetherell's novels (The Wisest Man in America) and stories often combine a love of nature and of the conventional outdoor activities of boyhood with a darker and...

Mister Christian.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... William Kinsolving. Simon & Schuster, $23 (384p) ISBN 0-684-81303-3 Spanning a period of more than 20 years following the 1789 mutiny aboard the HMS Bounty, this captivating yarn chronicles the subsequent derring-do of chief mutineer...

Dust and Ashes.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Anatoll Rybakov, translated by Antonina W. Bouis. Little, Brown, $24.95 (480p) ISBN 0-316-76379-9 The third and final volume in the saga of Soviet life under Stalin that began with Children of the Arbat and continued with Fear has the same...

Stress.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Loren D. Estleman. Mysterious, $21.95 (288p) ISBN 0-89296-553-3 Its urban tensions arise from race, not booze, but the Detroit of this fifth volume (after Edsel) in Estleman's ongoing saga of the Motor City is as rife with violence and...

And This Too Shall Pass.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... E. Lynn Harris. Doubleday, $23.95 (368p) ISBN 0-385-48030-X In Harris's entertaining new work, the issues of sexual orientation that dominated his first two novels (Invisible Life and its sequel, Just How I Am) take a back seat to universal...

A White Merc With Fins.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... James Hawes. Pantheon, $22 (304p) ISBN 0-679-44225-1 Aided and abetted by a dysfunctionally cool cast of Londoners and a slick, accelerated plot, Hawes's debut crosses British post-Thatcher class warfare with the all-American bank-job crime...

Honky-Tonk Logic.
January 29, 1996... Tom Hollis. St. Martin's/Wyatt, $23.95 (352p) ISBN 0-312-13981-0 Truman Capote remains the avatar of white-trash sentimentality, but what his imitators often neglect is how he transformed the leaden yearnings of the low-born Southern classes...

Dad Says He Saw You at the Mall.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Ken Sparling. Knopf, $20 (192p) ISBN 0-679-42658-2 The title of this minimalist collage hints at two banalities: the first is the soul-smothering kind against which the fictional Ken Sparling, the character and narrator, battles by splicing...

Scream of Eagles.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... William W. Johnstone. Kensington, $19.95 (320p) ISBN 1-57566-016-4 Twelve years--and any sense of realism-- have gone up in smoke since Jamie MacCallister fought for the Confederacy in Talons of Eagles (1995). In this fourth volume of...

The Paris Interview.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Ron Churchill. Avenue A Press (147 Avenue A, New York, N.Y., 10009; 212-717-0810), $24 (347p) ISBN 0-964-24550-7 A weekend junket in Paris serves as a vehicle for the author's rambling, pun-peppered musings on the global economy, the human...

Deadly Care.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Leonard S. Goldberg. Dutton, $22.95 (272p) ISBN 0-525-94092-8 A plethora of technical forensic detail adds much-needed gloss to a medical thriller involving largely two-dimensional characters Heroine Joanna Blalock (also seen in Deadly...

Izmir.(Brief Review)
January 29, 1996... E. Howard Hunt. Fine, $21.95 (240p) ISBN 1-55611-474-5 As Hunt's sixth Jack Novak thriller (after Islamorada) ()pens, the freelance knight in tarnished armor arrives in Bern, Switzerland, to tie the knot at last with his beloved Melody....

Unlocking the Air: and Other Stories.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Ursula K. Le Guin. HarperCollins, $21 (224p) ISBN 0-06-017260-6 Hugo and Nebula awards cling to her writings like iron filings to a magnet. Even so, Le Guin has written numerous stories with no hint of scientific speculation or fantasy--like...

Lost Coast.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Steven Nightingale. St. Martin's/ Dunne, $21.95 (208p) ISBN 0-312-14007-X In the manner of a contemporary Canterbury Tales, this sensuous, hyperkinetic first novel takes a charismatic group of wanderers across the American West. Who are...

A Tapestry of Murder.
January 29, 1996... P. C. Doherty. St. Martin's, $21.95 (256p) ISBN 0-312-14052-5 Swift, intriguing and sometimes bleakly comic, this "dark tale of blood and passion" is told by one of Chaucer's pilgrims, the Man of Law. As he regales his fellow travelers with...

The Last Judgement.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Iain Pears. Scribner, $21 (224p) ISBN 0-684-81459-5 The latest (mis)adventure of art historian Jonathan Argyll delivers its plot twists at a rapid clip right up to the closing pages, where Jonathan's lover, Flavia di Stefano of Rome"s Art...

The Wood Beyond.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Reginald Hill. Delacorte, $21.95 (352p) ISBN 0-385-13271-7 A WW I incident is recalled and subjected to shifting viewpoints:, a crew of present-day animal rights activists blunders across old bones; and a private security outfit comes under...

That Day the Rabbi Left Town.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Harry Kemelman. Fawcett Columbine, $22 (256p) ISBN 0-449-91002-4 Rabbi David Small, after 25 years at the Barnard's Crossing Temple, resigns in order to launch a Judaic studies department at Windermere College in Boston. Happily, Kemelman...

Shadow of Doubt.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Jonnie Jacobs. Kensington, $18.95 (304p) ISBN 1-57566-017-2 Jacobs, author of two mysteries starring Kate Austen (Murder Among Neighbors and Murder Among Friends), inaugurates a series featuring San Francisco lawyer Kale O'Brien with a gritty...

Breaking Point.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Martina Navratilova and Liz Nickles. Villard, $23 (304p) ISBN 0- 679-43391-0 Navratilova and Nickles lob a winner into the mystery court with the followup to The Total Zone. At Roland Garros stadium in Paris, Jordan Myles-- former women's...

Brothers.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Ben Bova. Bantam, $22.95 (448p) ISBN 0-553-09379-7 Science is on trial and the medical future of the human species is at issue in this latter-day riff on Inherit the Wind. Molecular biologist Arthur Marshak sees his research into the...

Paths to Otherwhere.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... James P. Hogan. Baen, $22 (416p) ISBN 0-671-87710-0 The possibility of moving a person's consciousness between our world and others comes alive as Hogan (The Immortality Option), a dean of hard SF, parlays a standard SF gambit into an...

Luthien's Gamble.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... R. A. Salvatore. Warner Aspect, $22.45 (304p) ISBN 0-446-51727-5 The battle to free Eriador from the grip of the tyrannical Wizard-King Greensparrow continues in this fitfully rousing sequel to The Sword of Bedwyr. Although the humans, elves...

The Skystone: The Forging of Arthur's Britain.
January 29, 1996... The Forging of Arthur's Britain..... Jack Whyte. Forge, $22.95 (352p) ISBN 0-312-86091-9 Perhaps not since the early 1970s, with Mary Stewart's The Crystal Cave and The Hollow Hills, have the Roman Empire and the Arthurian legends been...

The Parafaith War.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... L. E. Modesitt Jr. Tor, $23.95 (384p) ISBN 0-312-85904-X The primacy of ideas over characterization--a hallmark of (John) Campbellian science fiction--distinguishes Modesitt's current novel from his popular Recluse series and the delightful...

Piano Lessons: Music, Love and True Adventure.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Music, Love and True Adventure Noah Adams. Delacorte, S20.95 (272p) ISBN 0-385-31404-3 "It is my dream, when I touch the keys, to release the notes. It is music waiting there," writes Adams in this delightful recreation of the year he...

Bound Upon a Wheel of Fire: Why So Many German Jews Made the Tragic Decision to Remain in Nazi Germany.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Why So Many German Jews Made the Tragic Decision to Remain in Nazi Germany John V.H. Dippel. Basic, $26 (384p) ISBN 0-465-09105-2 Jews who perished in the Holocaust have often been blamed for staying in Nazi Germany until it was too late....

The Book of David: How Preserving Families Can Cost Children's Lives.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... How Preserving Families Can Cost Children's Lives Richard J. Gelles. Basic, $23 (224p) ISBN 0-465-05395-5 The tragedy of abused children who have been failed by child welfare agencies is made palpable in the case presented here, followed by...

The Shelter of Each Other: Rebuilding Our Families.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Mary Pipher. Grosset/Putnam, $24.95 (288p) ISBN 0-399-14144-8 As she tells stories of families--her own and others'--therapist Pipher (Reviving Ophelia) focuses on small victories in what she calls "the current family-hurting culture."...

'Exterminate All the Brutes': A Modern Odyssey into the Heart of Darkness.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... A Modern Odyssey into the Heart of Darkness Sven Lindqvist, translated by Joan Tare. New Press, $20 (192p) ISBN 1-56584-002-X Swedish author Lindqvist (China in Crisis) offers an unusual diary: the story of his bus trip through the Sahara...

Confessions of an Igloo Dweller.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... James Houston. Houghton Mifflin/ Davison, $24.95 (352p) ISBN 0-395-78890-0 A chance visit to the Arctic in 1948-when Canadian author-artist Houston (The White Dawn) was invited to fly with an aviator friend on a medical emergency at an...

On the Brink: The Dramatic Saga of How the Reagan Administration Changed the Course of History and Won the Cold War.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... The Dramatic Saga of How the Reagan Administration Changed the Course of History and Won the Cold War Jay Winik. Simon & Schuster, $30 (672p) ISBN 0-684-80982-6 The thesis that President Ronald Reagan's administration, through its embrace...

News Values: Ideas for the Information Age.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Ideas for an Information Age Jack Fuller. Univ. of Chicago, $19.95 (200p) ISBN 0-226-26879-9 Fuller, publisher of the Chicago Tribune and a Pulitzer Prize winner for editorial writing, offers a stimulating and often hard-nosed look at the...

On the Ledge: A Doctor's Stories from the Inner City.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... A Doctor's Stories from the Inner City Neil S. Skolnik, M.D. Faber and Faber, $19.95 (162p) ISBN 0-571-19883-X When an idealistic young doctor attempts to practice family medicine at an inner-city clinic, he has awakenings that are rude,...

The Lords of the Valley: Including the Complete Text of 'Our Unsheltered Lives' by Ed Lord.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Including the Complete Text of Our Unsheltered Lives by Ed Lord Laverne Manners. Univ. of Oklahoma, $22.95 ISBN 0-8061-2804-6 In 1965, at the age of 80, Ed Lord wrote a memoir for his family and friends recounting life in the Dry Cimarron...

Ecologies of the Heart.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Eugene N. Anderson. Oxford Univ., $25 ISBN 0-19-509010-1 A cultural ecologist specializing in resource management, Anderson has studied how people manage their environment in such diverse countries as China, Malaysia, British Columbia and...

Heaven's Coast: A Memoir.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Mark Dory. HarperCollins, $23 (256p) ISBN 0-06-017210-X In this luminous study of illness and loss, the acclaimed poet (author of My Alexandria and Atlantis) recounts how his lover of eight years, Wally Roberts, learned from a Vermont social...

Coming of Age with Elephants: A Memoir.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... A Memoir Joyce Poole. Hyperion, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 0-7868-6095-2 Poole spent much of her childhood in Africa and found it a place of enchantment. As a young woman, she returned to Kenya's Ambosili National Park to study elephants with...

Jerzy Kosinski: A Biography.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... James Park Sloan. Dutton, $24.95 (512p) ISBN 0-525-93784-6 When, from time to time, this lively bio fails to read as literary and critical detective work at its best, it entertains a la a People magazine profile. Sloan treats Kosinski, whom...

City of the Great King: Jerusalem from David to the Present.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Jerusalem from David to the Present Edited by Nitza Rosovsky. Harvard Univ., $39.95 (576p) ISBN 0-674-13190-8 In the opening essay of this vibrant mosaic for readers of all faiths, archeologist Magen Broshi shows that Jerusalem, for most...

The Ethical Edge: Tales of Organizations That Have Faced Moral Crises.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Tales of Organizations That Have Faced Moral Crises Dawn-Marie Driscoll, W. Michael Hoffman and Edward Petry. MasterMedia, $24.95 (256p) ISBN 1-57101-051-3 Launched under an inspirational book imprint, this thoughtfully instructional...

The Burgmeister's Daughter: Scandal in a Sixteenth-Century German Town.
January 29, 1996... Scandal in a Sixteenth-Century German Town Steven Ozment. St. Martin's, $23.95 (240p) ISBN 0-312-13939-X Ozment (Protestants: The Birth of a Revolution) brings a medieval drama to life in this meticulously researched and engrossing narrative...

The Kennedy Men: Three Generations of Sex, Scandal and Secrets.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Three Generations of Sex, Scandal and Secrets Nellie Bly. Kensington, $22.93 (368p) ISBN 1-57566-015-6 This is Kennedy family history for a visitor from Saturn, a by-the-clips stampede through the generations from Joe Sr. and his dynastic...

The Weight of the Yen.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... R. Taggart Murphy. Norton, $25 (320p) ISBN 0-393-03832-7 An American investment hanker who has lived in Japan for the past 15 years, Murphy brings a rare bicultural perspective to his enlightening and disturbing saga of how Japan became the...

Bernard Shaw: The Ascent of the Superman.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... The Ascent of the Superman Sally Peters. Yale Univ., $28.50 ISBN 0-300-06097-1 George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) was haunted by the idea that he was a reincarnation of William Shakespeare. According to Peters's startlingly incisive...

Renewing the Left: Politics, Imagination, and the New York Intellectuals.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Politics, Imagination, and the New York Intellectuals Harvey M. Teres. Oxford Univ., $30 ISBN 0-19-507802-0 In breaking with their socialism of the 1930s and moving toward the political center, Partisan Review founding editors Philip Rahv...

At a Century's Ending: Reflections, 1982-1995.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Reflections 1982-1995 George Kennan. Norton, $25 (350p) ISBN 0-393-03882-3 In one of the best pieces in this miscellany of essays, speeches, lectures and reviews, Kennan sketches a series of vivid autobiographical flashbacks: living in a...

Pop Internationalism.(Brief Article)
January 29, 1996... Paul Krugman. MIT Press, $22.50 (218p) ISBN 0-262-11210-8 Conventional wisdom holds that foreign competition endangers U.S. jobs, that Americans must learn to compete in an ever-tougher global marketplace and that we can do so only by forging...