NOT UNDER OATH: Recollections and Reflections

John Kieran recollects and reflects on a long and successful career via mass edia-twenty-five years as a sports reporter for the New York Times, Tribune and American, and ten years or so as a regular on the popular radio parade of wits and Savants --""Information Please."" Although a great deal of his autobiographical reportage deals with city events, (largely sporting) and city people (largely the quiz show's bigger names) Kieran claims his heart lies in the country. His brief farming career and subsequent spectator sport like bird-watching resulted in several nature books that still sell well, outlasting his professional appearances. A genteel sort of memoir -- pleasant enough for those whose memories extend beyond the TV sets to that nearly mythical world of radio, a limitation not exactly geared to a literary box office smash.