by George S. Kaufman
Kaufman is probably best remembered for his plays (The Man Who Came to Dinner, You Can't Take It with You) written with Moss Hart. But between Broadway hits, Kaufman, who died in 1961, contributed to The New Yorker, the New York Times and LIFE, among other periodicals. This compendium of 50 pieces, from poems and one-act plays to essays, reveals his happily cynical world view. Typical is "Annoy Kaufman Inc.," which describes "an organization whose scope and energies are so enormous that they stagger the imagination." Its goal: Harass Kaufman by, say, sending people to jump ahead of him and create long lines at the bank. While the book, which also contains the script of the Marx Brothers' play Cocoanuts, spans nearly 40 years of work, Kaufman's humor seems as contemporary as Woody Allen's. Buy George. (St. Martin's, $12.95)
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