JOHN JAY

An excellent biography of one of the leaders in our early national history, a man who played an important part in framing our policies, who shared with Franklin the honors for our first groping steps in diplomacy, who was eventually Chief Justice of our Supreme Court. His story is told with a keen sense of his place in the whole picture, an appreciation of the dramatic and human values, and a gift of swift narrative. As good a biography of John Jay as has appeared, or is likely to -- and essential for students of the American background, and for public and college libraries.