ROOTS OF AMERICA

A Travelogue of American Personalities, so runs the subtitle. No famous nor yet wealthy characters portrayed, but from the Atlantic to the Pacific, North and South are presented a New England farmer, a Southern plantation owner, a horse wrangler, a Taos Indian, a Texas sheepherder, a country hotel keeper, a country newspaper editor-owner, backwoods people, and so on. Eulogistic in tone, sympathetic in presentation, here is a warm picture of rural types, Americans living -- and loving -- their life and work. The other side of the slate from Rorty's Where Life is Better (page 10).