TO NOWHERE AND RETURN

Publisher, editor (Saturday Review, Living Age, Current History, North American Review), soldier of fortune and derelict, Joseph Hilton Smyth tells his personal story with a mixture of candor and evasions. He's been all sorts of places -- Guatemala before it was a tourist paradise; Haiti and south, chasing whales; in literary circles -- and otherwise -- in Paris, New York, New Orleans and Boston, where he knew the literary lions. His marital adventures and misadventures, his experiences in pursuit of liquor -- and in trying out ""cures"" fill many pages. Readable, but not noteworthy.