The Literary Life
edited by . Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $12.95. A “scrapbook almanac” about writers, with pictures, recording who published what, died, got arrested, sued or divorced, won prizes, lost brawls, coined epigrams, with quotations from colleagues and bystanders, covering the years 1900 to 1950. It ought to be terrible and turns out to be a glorious ragbag of disorderly information, part of the fun being that one cannot look up pets in the index because there is no index.