THE WORLDS OF ROBERT E. SHERWOOD

Sherwood began his career as an undergraduate humorist and dramatist (Harvard Lampoon, Hasty Pudding shows, etc.) moved on to Vanity Fair and the old Life before becoming a playwright and movie writer, and three-times Pulitzer Prize winner. Mr. Brown, who was a personal friend, relates here happenings, as well as incidents in Sherwood's boyhood, schooling, and Army life, in a sprightly style that perhaps over-emphasizes the perennial-undergraduate aspect of Sherwood's personal charm. He omits the era when Sherwood wrote for Roosevelt. And, since he treats events as units, despite chronological overlaps, the time sequence is often confusing. This warm-hearted, intimate approach may appeal to many readers, but if Sherwood was perhaps not a truly major playwright, he himself, and his relations to his times and a galaxy of other writers, would seem to have been more complex than they appear here.