A PERSONAL BOOK

Elegant and organized, Dorothy Rodgers is an expert on constructing environments, yours and hers (The House in My Head, 1967; A Word to the Wives, 1970). Wife of composer Richard Rodgers and author with daughter Mary of a monthly advice column in McCall's, this time she has written a reserved, fastidious sort of reminiscence. She grew up in a well-to-do family on 88th Street at a time when ""children weren't taught to be wary."" At twenty she married Richard Rodgers who was already established and on his way to becoming a ""living legend."" Her life has been smoothed by cooks, nannies, and maids but she also writes with awareness about the subtleties of parent-child relationships, her own father's apparent suicide, and the irrationality of anti-Semitism. She has devoted herself to composing a backdrop against which her husband's talent could flourish and balanced that with being creator and owner of a successful business (Repairs, Inc.); inventor of (among other things) the Jonny-Mop; author, volunteer, and mother. A pleasant book--no more personal, really, than the caption under a yearbook photo--about a disciplined lady who isn't exactly the little homemaker next door.