EDITOR'S CHOICE: THE YEAR'S BEST IN NONFICTION

Author: By David Mehegan, Globe Staff

Date: SUNDAY, December 7, 1997

Page: G3

Section: Books

More than half of those 800 books are nonfiction. That being so, one critic or editor's choice of the ``best'' nonfiction books of a given year is necessarily a messy quadrille of rumor, hunch, vivid testimony, and direct experience. You can't win -- or read -- 'em all, and so you do what we do here, which is to offer a sampling of great books across a range of subjects. Every one has received a strong recommendation by a Globe reviewer, and, various tastes notwithstanding, we are certain that none would be a waste of a reader's time or money, either as an addition to one's own library or as a gift to that of another.

Biography is a nonfiction staple, of course, and 1997 saw a generous crop. For some reason, English novelists were especially well represented, with two biographies of Jane Austen: ``Jane Austen: A Life'' by David Nokes (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $35) and ``Jane Austen: A Biography'' by Claire Tomalin (Knopf, $27.50). Globe reviewer Rachel Brownstein leaned to the Tomalin version, calling it ``congenial, . . . entertaining, illuminating.''

``Rosemary Ashton's biography is an ideal introduction to George Eliot's real and fictional worlds. In a way, George Eliot's biographer has it easy: Her life is so dramatic, her personality so appealing, and her work so engaging that it may seem impossible to write an uninteresting biography. Perhaps, but we should still be grateful for Ashton's warmth, judiciousness, and narrative skill.'' Thus wrote reviewer George Scialabba of Rosemary Ashton's ``George Eliot: A Life'' (Allen Lane/Penguin, $32.95).

Perhaps the finest literary biography of the year, though, is ``Virginia Woolf'' by Hermione Lee (Knopf, $39.95). This book is strongly recommended by the book editor, who called it (in a ``My Back Pages'' column) ``irresistible, . . . a great work of art,'' and by reviewer Maureen Howard, who wrote that Lee does, ``as a biographer, mirror her subject's powerful and independent intelligence in the design of `Virginia Woolf,' which invents a daring narrative in its selection of the great novelist's moments of being.''

Sam Tanenhaus's ``Whittaker Chambers'' (Random House, $35) was a finalist for the 1997 National Book Award. Reviewer Thomas Powers called this biography of the accuser of Alger Hiss authoritative and praised the author's ``prodigious research.'' Tanenhaus concludes that Chambers was telling the truth in his testimony that Hiss had been a spy for the Russians in the 1930s, and Powers wrote that the biographer ``does honor to [Chambers's] courage in doing what never fails to exact a price: telling the truth.''

One of the odder biographies of the year is surely ``Casanova: The Man Who Really Loved Women'' by Belgian psychiatrist Lydia Flem (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $24). Flem writes that, more than a dashing blade who bedded every women he met (although the tally -- 122 -- is not modest), Casanova was a courtier, diplomat, priest, soldier, to name a few of his careers. Reviewer Elizabeth Benedict found that Flem made of Casanova's own 12-volume account of his life ``an analysis so witty, smartly written, lyrical, concise, and free from the jargon of her trade'' that ``you would never know she is a mental health professional.''

Other notable biographies this year: Patrick McGilligan's ``Fritz Lang: The Nature of the Beast, a Biography'' (St. Martin's Press, $30), about the great German/American film director, and ``Appetite for Life: The Biography of Julia Child'' by Noel Riley Fitch (Doubleday, $25.95), a book much praised by reviewer Sheryl Julian, the food editor of the Globe. This year, the 50th anniversary of baseball's desegregation, also saw Arnold Rampersad's ``Jackie Robinson: A Biography'' (Knopf, $27.50), a long-awaited account of the legendary American hero. Globe reviewer James Miller wrote, ``Arnold Rampersad's magnificent biography . . . probes deeply beneath the surface of the legend, with all of its overtones of racial martyrdom and endurance, reminding us that Jackie Robinson was a man of many lives.''

There was much poetry published in 1997, and many of the books (though too few) were reviewed here. It seems not right to place poetry under nonfiction, yet there were memorable works of translation and commentary that gained acclaim.

First comes ``The Odyssey: Homer,'' a new translation, from the ancient Greek, by Robert Fagles (Viking, $35). John Ferguson, assistant book editor of the Globe, wrote in these pages, ``The specialist readers have pronounced Fagles's work a success, faithful to the spirit and the language of the original. Those of us who don't read Greek will have to be satisfied on other grounds: Has Fagles produced a book, an English poem, worth reading and rereading? The answer is an unequivocal yes.''

Less well known perhaps to the common reader is the Roman poet Horace, but he is already better known because of ``The Odes of Horace,'' translated, from the Latin, by David Ferry (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $35), whose 1992 translation of the epic of Gilgamesh was much-honored. Robert Taylor, the retired chief book critic of the Globe, wrote of the Horace translation, ``Ferry's long-anticipated bilingual edition of the Odes captures their inimitable qualities in late 20th-century terms and sets a standard that that ought to extend well into the next millennium.''

Last in the department of poetics is ``T. S. Eliot: Inventions of the March Hare, Poems, 1909-1917,'' edited by Christopher Ricks (Harcourt Brace, $30). These early Eliot poems are of no great moment in themselves, but Ricks lays upon them and draws from them such prodigious learning and commentary that they become a kind of incunabulum of Eliotiana. In his Globe review, William H. Pritchard wrote of Ricks's efforts, ``His edition of these poems is a seminar in the uses of literary language.''

In the crowded memoir field, one of the great books this year was ``Personal History'' by Katharine Graham (Knopf, $29.95). The longtime publisher of The Washington Post, Graham pulls no punches in her recollections, not even when the topic is her husband Philip's torment by manic-depressive illness, his suicide, and her response. Her account of the Watergate and Pentagon Papers stories adds new perspective on those events as well. Reviewer David Brudnoy wrote, `` `Personal History' never rushes [Graham's] story, and it compels close reading to savor the amplitude of its author's life and the world its author enriched.''

Movieland makes for great memoirs, of course, and this year yielded ``Loitering with Intent: The Apprentice'' by English actor Peter O'Toole (Hyperion, $24.95). This is the second installment of O'Toole's projected three-volume autobiography, and it tells of his beginnings in the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, after he left the British navy at age 21. Michael Blowen wrote, in his Globe review, ``The paperback edition of the first volume of ``Loitering with Intent'' [``The Child''] is out . . . and it would make sense to read that one first. But, as it is, the second volume stands on its own and makes one thirsty for the third, and presumably final, volume in this unique, magnificent series.''

Two works of history represented particularly notable achievements. First there is ``Nazi Germany and the Jews. Volume I: The Years of Persecution, 1933-1939'' by Saul Friedlander (HarperCollins, $30), an account of the gradual transformation of Germany's Jewish community into a pariah minority, driven directly by the fanatic anti-Semitism of Hitler. Dietrich Orlow wrote in his Globe review, ``This is a brilliant book, combining scholarly rigor with a compassionate treatment of the human dimension of momentous historic decisions.''

Second, we recommend ``A Short History of Byzantium'' by John Julius Norwich (Knopf, $35). This is a condensation of Norwich's droll and sprightly three-volume history of the Byzantine empire, and it zooms along over 1,100 years. ``With this able work of storytelling,'' the Globe book editor wrote in his review, ``Norwich makes us admire the Byzantine world almost as much as he does.''

Alas, we must end this sampling, having only scratched the surface. There are so many wonderful books written and ready to be wrapped, given, unwrapped, and enjoyed. Reading still lives, indeed prospers! Rejoice!