AFTER THE LOST WAR <i> by Andrew Hudgins (Houghton Mifflin: $13.95, cloth; $8.95, paper; 134 pp.) </i>

This novel in verse tells of a decent, loving man’s life interrupted by two diseases: the Civil War that rent the heart of a nation and the tuberculosis in his own lungs.--Henri Coulette

THE FOUNDING FORTUNES A New Anatomy of the Corporate-Rich

Families in America

by Michael Patrick Allen (Truman Talley/Dutton: $22.50; 480 pp.) This readable, incisive book examines the American economic elite, which owns more than half of all stocks and bonds and wields influence far beyond its numbers.--David Johnston