1960

Writing books. In our class, sometimes it's the culmination of a long career and study, sometimes a continuing endeavor, the latest among many, and sometimes a project of joy undertaken in retirement.

Our classmates have authored dozens of volumes, and other by outsiders have mentioned or pictured members of the class. Here are four of the most recent efforts:

Peter Klaren, now in his 29th year as professor of history and international affairs at George Washington University, has followed years of study of and visits to Peru with a history of the country from the Incas to the Fujimori regime. Its title is Peru: Society andNationhood, published by the Oxford Press. It's part of a series of national histories of leading Latin American countries and is expected to be used in universities all over the United States. Peter wrote it in eight years, even while teaching surveys and offering seminars fulltime at George Washington. "I love what I'm doing and I want to keep at it as long as I can," Peter declares, mentioning also that another of our classmates, John Youle, has served as president of the Lima Chamber of Commerce during a long Peruvian residence.

Reed Browning, professor of history at Kenyon College, meanwhile has written a biography of the winningest pitcher in major league history, Cy Young, who was victorious in 511 games from 1890 through 1911. Titled CyYoung,A Baseball Life, it is published by the University of Massachusetts Press.

In his preface, Reed writes, "I often use the first person singular in this book. In part, that's because I am imagining myself in conversation with the reader, in part because I want to be able to talk about how and why I'm doing certain things in the book, and in part because writing about baseball brings out the colloquial in me. I have tried not to allow casualness of tone to lead to slackness of thought."

In his third book addressed to a general audience, in addition to two two-volume treatises on Maryland law, George Liebmann has written Solving Problems Without Large Government; Devolution, Fairness and Equality. The volume deals with small community institutions such as street associations and discusses, among other topics, preventing small government entities from oppressing minorities and concerns about economic equality. George is already at work on another volume, a collection of biographical sketches of professional men and women, three Americans and three Brits.

Douglas Wheeler, '59 class poet, recently sent me his slim volume, Fifty-Nine Remembers, noting its overlap and connection with our class. Several of our classmates are pictured or mentioned, including Marc Austen, John Goodman and Con Gardner. Doug will send it to anyone interested for the list price of $19.95. and throw in the postage. Write to 27 Mill Road, Durham, NH 03824-3098.

5522 Nagle Ave.,van Nuys, CA91401; (818) 994-9231(h);(213) 237-4712(fax); ken.reich@latimes.com