BY ELMER DAVIS

This collection of radio reports, magazine articles and short stories will be welcomed by those listeners who still miss the late news analyst's level-headed commentary. The editor, Elmer Davis' son, has selected and arranged the material well. Under ""Personal"" are reminiscent pieces as well as some political essays, to which Davis brought scholarly skepticism and a philosopher's perspective -- the war years and McCarthy era pieces are still standouts. Under ""Mores"" is the justly famous satiric analysis ""Portrait of A Cleric"" in which, with a sharp and cutting pen, Davis operated on Bishop Manning who brought N.Y.'s Cathedral of St. John the Divine to completion with questionable fund raising tactics. Under ""Fiction"" are gathered a few of the short stories published during Davis' free lance years in the '20's and '30's. These are exercises in formula fiction designed to keep the pot boiling, distinguished for the fact that each, within the slick framework, attacks some continuing problem in personal ethics in a way in which written-to-order fiction seldom does. Readers of Roger Burlingame's Davis biography Don't Let Them Scare You will find this an excellent companion volume revealing the development of the man through his work.