European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 13, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 18 blur Nils the stars and stripes wednesday november 13, 1985 today s crossword Book list is no place for perfection by Russell Baker new York not the of five books on the new York times s list of nonfiction Best Sellers arc by or about celebrities. There is an important lesson Here for the Mil Lions yearning desperately to become writers quit wasting your Lime at writing school. Go out and become famous. That s what Shirley Maclaine Chuck Yeager Lee Iacocca and Howard Cosell did. And look where they arc today. Happily ensconced at numbers 2 through 5 on the times Best seller list. The number i position is held by Priscilla Beaulicu Presley. If the name at first glance seems less than familiar the title of her Best seller will make everything instantly Clear. It s Elvis and Presley is the widow of the late great has there Ever been so great � celebrity the beatles per haps but there were four of them. Frank Sinatra is in the same weight class celebrity i Sously speaking but the word is out that Sinatra has no interest in being a writer. A Man who knows him says Frank s determination to become a great Singer actor and concert performer was not motivated by an urge to be the meal successful author since Charles Dickens being a great Singer a great actor and a great concert performer Wai enough for a Man of Frank s modest the likelier explanation it you ask me is that Frank Sinatra is too much a perfectionist to succeed at Litera Ture. I have seen perfectionism strangle Many Tine liter Ary talents in the Cradle. I recall a comedian who used to play Baltimore burlesque houses under the name of Bunny rots. Bunny was not bad As a comedian but his singing was far from satisfactory and several acting schools had Cupelle him for conspicuous Lack of the Cpl an Talent. I often urged him to forget the acting and singing and develop his comic skills. These i said might make him a celebrity big enough to become a great writer. It s no use Bunny always Laid. I could never re member what the ablative absolute is and whether a noun preceding a Gerund takes the possessive or the Dative Case and let s face it i could t whip the Dan gling participle to save my Well this was absurd because after Bunny became a real celebrity nobody would expect him to write his own Book. The writing part was detail and for that you hired a Wordsmith. As i explained to Bunny after he became a famous comedian he d be too Busy making to commercials and being written up in people Magazine to have time to sit around in front of a typewriter. Very few big time authors did that. I cited the Case of the late Nelson Rockefeller. Be cause Nelson Rockefeller was always too Busy to write his own books he paid other people to write them for him and after they were published Nelson Rockefeller was too Busy to read them. That was t Good enough for Bunny. He wanted to be an even greater writer than Rockefeller or he would t be a writer at All. Bunny was a perfectionist. That s Why he does net appear on this week s list with Presley Chuck Yeager Lee Iacocca and Howard Cosell none of whom Are too proud to give a printed credit to the people who handled the writing end of their books. Respectively Sandra Harmon Leo Janes William Novak and Peter Bonventre Young persons eager to become writers will ask what sort of Fame is most Likely to bring literary Success. The evidence is conclusive. Become a famous movie or to performer if you want the big Bucks in publish ing. This week s top five for instance Are All by or about people whose Fame derives from pictures that move. Messes. Yeager and Iacocca achieved modest Fame in non pictorial careers but it was a Best telling Book about another group of celebrities the Mercury Astro nauts that propelled Yeager through movie and to commercial Fame to literary Success and it was a series of to commercials that made Iacocca the household name and literary colossus he is today. Charles Kuralt. The lbs newsman places number 7 with a Book about his on the Road pieces for the network news. Number 8 is the latest Book about the late Marilyn Monroe always sure fire at the bookstores just like the Kennedy who Are now lodged at number 9 in living with the the list contains a couple of books by people you never saw on film or to. They would be higher up the list if they spent less time writing and More in front of cameras. No room for this writer in space by Art Buchwald Nasa has announced that it will choose a journalist to Fly into orbit on a space shuttle flight next fall. The Passen Ger will be selected from thousands of journalists by the association of schools of journalism and mass requirements Are that the candidate be a citizen of the United states have five years of journalistic experience and be working at the time. The applicant must pass a physical examination an be Able to demonstrate an ability to communicate to mass audiences in the broadcast and print am aware of what you re thinking i would be the perfect person to take the flight. But before you Nomi Nate me i have to warn you i have no interest in going into , i know your argument. I am probably in better physical shape than any journalist in the country an could handle weightlessness More easily than most. And there is probably no question in your mind that i could do a better reporting Job. So Why won t 1 Fly the main reason is i have to think of myself before my is the Downside to the shuttle flight. They say i would have to give up four months of my life to prepare for the three or four Day Nasa flight. Since i veal ready had intensive training flying the Eastern shuttle Tonew York i Don t see Why r need More. The next thing that bothers me is that the candidate has to pro Mac not to violate the privacy of his fellow astronauts. This makes no sense. If you can t violate someone s privacy you have no right to Call yourself a journalist. Space for All its grandeur is still the Story of human beings holed up in an aluminium Cigar standing on their Heads hurtling around the Globe while to records them waving to the camera. I have other reasons for turning Down the flight. Oneis that i will be required to Pool All the information i gather with every other reporter on the should i risk my life so everyone else can get my Story pooling with other reporters is unfair because the Only reason for a journalist to go into space is to make his colleagues look stupid when he returns. The idea of Nasa giving a journalist a free trip in shuttle could present a conflict of interest. Let us say for argument s Sake the food is Lousy the Crew is fool ing around and the much touted walk in space does t live up to the advertising. How can you report freely what really goes on behind closed doors on a shuttle when Nasa is picking up the Tab the final thing that bugs me about the offer is that we journalists were Nasa i fourth Choice after sen. Jake Garn. A saudi arabian Prince and a schoolteacher named Christa Mcauliffe. Some of you in your enthusiasm May have already submitted my name. If so please write to the Nasa journalist in space project University of South Carolina Columbia s.c., and Tell them to Lake me out of consideration. 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