FIRST ENCOUNTERS

These full-color drawings by Edward coupled with brief narrative texts by Nancy have been culled from the Atlantic. Among the most entertaining encounters is the chance meeting in an elevator between Orson Welles and William Randolph Hearst around the time Citizen Kane was released. After Hearst turns down Welles's chutzpah-laden invitation to the premiere, the director taunts him: ``Charles Foster Kane would have accepted.'' In another scenario, some of Al Capone's mugs kidnap musician Fats Waller at gunpoint and make him play for Scarface at a birthday bash. It's the Prohibition era, and the party lasts three days, after which ``Fats has acquired several thousand dollars in cash and a decided taste for vintage champagne.'' Other encounters, like that between Jean-Paul Marat and Charlotte Corday, don't end so happily. There are 65 encounters, and the Sorels make each one entertaining—and a few of them quite moving. (Book-of-the-Month Club selection)