THE SUNDAY GENTLEMAN

Irving Wallace (The Prize, The Chapman Report and current bestseller, The Man) worked for 20 years as a freelance writer for the periodical press. His vulgarian fiction may be his pot of gold, if not the critic's cup of tea, but the big slick magazine article was his forte. There are 20 collected here and the information on each subject has been brought up to date from the time he first wrote of it. The title, he explains in a lengthy preface, comes from the 18th century term for debtors who had to hide out all week but who could walk abroad as they pleased on Sundays. These are his Sunday Gentleman writings, done because he wanted to do them and the range of his curiosity will find an answering range of audiences among browsers. The bookish will be interested in his essays on the Baedeker family, the creation of the Frank Merriwell series, the Orient Express and the model for Sherlock Holmes. Crime buffs will enjoy some intriguing information on famous French detectives. The material on fabled madams and geisha girls will call to the sensational social historian that resides in Everyman. Inessential but entertaining.