THE COST OF A BEST SELLER

Sounding off rather touchily on many of the more trying, taxing moments best sellerdom imposes, this is a short, autobiographical sketch which opens with her sensitivity about her writing under the raised eyebrows of first her mother, then her husband. From her first novel, to her first best seller some 17 years later, this follows the concomitants of success; the increasing costs, as background material demanded location writing; the difficulty of writing under the pressure of time and illness; the dampers of reviews (she would have preferred literary to popular success); the invasion of her privacy by correspondence, interviewing, autographing, luncheons, the ""faithful reader"" or the ""energetic editor"". But at the close there is the satisfaction of financial returns, and of being ""in touch with the human family throughout the world"". Somewhat miffed in tone, restricted in interest, this is probably only for the most ""faithful reader"".