THE REVEALING EYE: Personalities of the 1920's in Photographs by Muray and Words by Gallico

Another transcript of only yesterday, the '20's, through some 150 photographs of its luminaries by Nickolas Muray, the Hungarian photographer who was the Karsh of that time (an emancipating era) and is lined up here with Steichen, Beaton and Baron. But whereas Beaton had Kenneth Tynan to do the text for his lesser Persona Grata, Muray has Gallico whose vest-pocket profiles are only so-so. The nicest annotations come from the subjects--Monet who said ""So now you Will know me as I am and not as I would have tried to hide myself from you""--or from Muray--on D.H. Lawrence--he ""wasn't the smiling type."" The book is a handsome production and almost all of these notables (Cather, Cocteau, Benton, Bartok, Coward, Galsworthy, Garbo, Gershwin, Helen Keller and G.B.S.--for example) will have not lost their interest for contemporary viewers. Coffee table charisma.