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AMERICAN DATELINES by Ed Cray, Jonathan Kotler and Miles Beller (Facts on File: $24.95; 382 pp.). Nothing is as fragile as a newspaper byline; in a single generation, it's been said, the great names of the city room are one with Nineveh and Tyre. Hoping to stem that sad tide, a trio from USC's School of Journalism has rescued 140 actual news stories from dusty morgues and yellowing clip files. Now you can read the police story filed by the Washington Post's Al Lewis that first reported the Watergate break-in; cringe at "A Dastard's Deed," a rather partisan reporting of the shooting of Jesse James, and stand in awe with a New York Times reporter on top of the newly opened Empire State Building. A nifty idea, imaginatively executed, and complete with the original, often hyperventilating headlines.
THE QUOTE SLEUTH: A Manual for the Tracer of Lost Quotations by Anthony W. Shipps (University of Illinois Press: $24.95; 194 pp.). According to Shipps, who takes as his motto Dr. Watson's observation that "like all Holmes's reasoning the thing seemed simplicity itself when it was once explained," no quote is ever truly lost, only temporarily misplaced. Shipps not only shares his familiarity with such arcane volumes of quotes as "The Wit and Wisdom of George Eliot" and the potentially oxymoronic "Quote It! Memorable Legal Quotations," he is also full of such hard-earned bits of information as "when you see the heroic couplet, you should think first of Pope." This is not only the most intriguing reference book of the year, it is also larded with more than its share of memorable quotes, such as Mark Twain's observation that "In the first place, God made idiots. This was for practice. Then He made School Boards."
THE FEMINIST COMPANION TO LITERATURE IN ENGLISH,edited by Virginia Blain, Isobel Grundy and Patricia Clements (Yale University Press: $49.95; 1,231 pp.). This authoritative tome did not easily see the light of day: That trio of editors and 75 other contributors labored for eight years to compile more than 2,700 thoughtful, spirited...