Good to Look At

To give a man a book does not mean that he will read it, but it is almost certain to induce at least a look between the covers. Knowing this, publishers try to get their most handsome volumes into the stalls just before Christmas (about 25% of all trade sales in the U.S. are made in December). This season has already brought a flood of books not only good to read but good to hold and to look at. A sampling of the best:

AMERICAN SCIENCE AND INVENTION, by Mitchell Wilson (437 pp.; Simon & Schuster; $10), tells in 1,200 pictures and clear, knowledgeable text the mighty success story of U.S. gadgeteers, scientists and inventors, from Ben Franklin and his kite to the nuclear fission boys.

BOOK OF NURSERY AND MOTHER GOOSE RHYMES, illustrated by Marguerite de Angeli (192 pp.; Doubleday; $5), is the kind of book that an adult takes from a sleeping child and leafs through with unashamed nostalgia.

ART TREASURES OF THE PRADO, with text by Harry B. Wehle (258 pp.; Abrams; $12.50), is a magnificent selection, in color and black-and-white, from the collection of one of the world's greatest museums, the Prado in Madrid.

SIGNS AND SYMBOLS IN CHRISTIAN ART, by George Ferguson (346 pp.; Oxford; $10), explains the symbolism of the great Renaissance religious paintings so clearly as to make many of the world's best-known pictures take on fresh meaning.

THE EAGLE, THE JAGUAR, AND THE SERPENT, by Miguel Covarrubias (314 pp.; Knopf; $15), is a beautifully illustrated, splendidly produced volume on the primitive but often strangely modern-looking art of the North American Indian and the Eskimo. Obviously a labor of love, the text by Mexican Artist Covarrubias is lucid and authoritative.

PROFILE OF AMERICA, edited by Emily Davie (415 pp.; Crowell; $8.50), tries--in historic letters, speeches, diaries and a fine selection of photographs--to explain what the U.S. is and what went into its making. A highly effective and, in the best sense, a patriotic book.

THE BOOK OF THE SEA, edited by A. C. Spectorsky (488 pp.; Appleton-Cen-tury-Crotts; $10), contains some of the world's greatest writing on the sea from Thucydides and Richard Hakluyt to Conrad and Alan Villiers.

MR. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARES COMEDIES, HISTORIES & TRAGEDIES (889 pp.; Yale University; $12.50) is a handsome facsimile edition of the famous First Folio of Shakespeare's plays (only Pericles is missing), "published according to the True Originall Copies'' in 1623.

AFRICAN ART, by Werner Schmalenbach (176 pp.; Macmillan; $12.50), may be a little special, but its fine photographs of primitive art can be looked at many times with honest fascination.

A PICTORIAL TREASURY OF OPERA IN AMERICA, by Daniel Blum (267 pp.; Greenberg; $10), is not very skillfully done, but it includes many hundreds of photographs of opera stars and scenes that will make pleasant browsing for opera fans.

PICTORIAL HISTORY OF THE WILD WEST, by James D. Horan and Paul Sann (254 pp.; Crown; $5.95), will give some fun to anyone interested in the violence of the old West, with photographs of hundreds of bad men, bad women and the marshals who brought them to bay.

THE SECOND TREASURY OF EARLY AMERICAN HOMES, by Richard Praff (144 pp.; Hawthorn; $12.50), shows, entirely in color, 57 of the nation's most beautiful homes, interiors and exteriors. Most of them are masterpieces of gracious architecture.

MASTERS OF MODERN ART, edited by Alfred H. Barr Jr. (239 pp.; Museum of Modern Art; $15), is a magnificent tour through the main avenues of modern painting and sculpture that combines a fine riot of color with authoritative text.

EVEREST, compiled by the Swiss Foundation for Alpine Research (Dutton; $7.50), and THE PICTURE OF EVEREST, edited by Alfred Gregory (Dutton; $10), are two of the best picture books on the subject, the first dealing with the luckless Swiss attempts in 1952, the second an all-color stunner on the successful British expedition.

YOUTH'S COMPANION, edited by Lovell Thompson (1,140 pp.; Houghton Mifflin; $6), is a fat, nostalgic, generally satisfying collection from The Youth's Companion covering the century 1827-1927 and including pieces by just about every writer of the time from Washington Irving to Robert Frost.

WOODLAND PORTRAITS, by Jeannette Klute (Little, Brown; $20), is a superb collection of 50 nature photographs (trees, flowers, woodland creatures) by a great camera artist. In many ways the most beautiful luxury book of the year.

SOLDIERS OF THE AMERICAN ARMY, drawings by Fritz Kredel (Regnery; $12.50), is a spot of Americana for anyone interested in the nation's military past: 32 drawings in full color of the uniforms of the American army from Washington and the colonial rifleman to this year's WAC.

SISTER CARRIE, by Theodore Dreiser (387 pp.; Heritage Press; $4.75), is a handsome new edition of the great novel, with illustrations by Reginald Marsh that make the book a bargain.

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