DUMBBELLS AND CARROT STRIPS (405 pp.)—Mary Macfadden & Emile Gauvreau—Holt ($3.95).
Mary Williamson was only a Yorkshire millhand until Bernarr ("Body Love") Macfadden, the "Father of Physical Culture," put a tape around her torso (bust 38½, hips 39). After that, life speeded up for Mary. First, in a nationwide contest, Macfadden crowned her "Great Britain's Perfect Woman"; then he gave her the star turn in his physicultural demonstrations—that of springing nightly off a high table and landing "with both feet together on his breadbasket."* Between springs he poured into her astonished ear the truth about the breadbasket—how the Macfadden stomach revolted against...