YANKEE REPORTER

The autobiography of a reporter, a 1940 Pulitzer Prize winner by the way, who has done a tall bit of big-time New York City and environs reporting, largely political. Heath has full command of the journalistic jibe and jabber, but also a manner of ""what I say goes"" which may irritate some. A typical Vermont little red schoolhouse childhood, apprentice newspaperwork here and there, the war, and finally reporting in New York for the A.P. and then the World Telegram -- where he stayed put. Heath covered Roosevelt from his gubernatorial days on, and didn't like him at all, at all. He pulls no punches and belligerently claims that Roosevelt was back of Hines, and vice versa. He knows most of the New York City bigwigs, La Guardia and his reform administration, Dewey, and covered quite a few of the judiciary exposes from Manton on. Heath fancies himself (and how) as a muckraker, fighting for civic reform and welfare, and has no doubt done a good job. But his coverage here is primarily of local interest.