SOME FACES IN THE CROWD

Hollywood, the prize ring, marriage, the war - provide the material for these 20 stories collected from Collier's, Esquire, etc. The road down after being top dog, loyalty, heels, fame and its price, phonies, punchy leather pushers, personalities in conflict --there's a hard-hitting sense of character and a smooth buildup of situation for these small portraits that are marked by human flaws. Your Arkansas Traveler is the entertainment figure who believes in his own importance: The Pride of Tony Colucci does not conform to the ethics of being knocked out: Enough -- a Jewish boy becomes a sharpshooter and wins an Irish friend: The Breaking Point comes for a wife when her sportsman husband descends to needless brutality: children defend a white deer but are the means of its death: there's a bitter fight in the audience as well as in the ring: a girl's courage is really the search for death: a novelist's secretary becomes more famous than his employer: civilians in Washington have their foxholes: an actor plays a real life soldier part well but betrays a faithful friend: a moving picture VIP learns he is on the skids -- here are the weak -- and once in a while -- the strong in graphic terms. Schulberg's previous novels will be a good come-on for his short stories.