When Harry Met Clare . . .

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All this is quite titillating -- and some of it has been recorded before -- but there are grounds for wondering how accurate Martin's amatory scorekeeping really is. In his acknowledgments and chapter notes, the author cites the "invaluable" assistance of interviews with Richard M. Clurman, for many years Time Inc.'s chief of correspondents, and his wife Shirley, a close friend of Clare's and a former TIME publicist. But Dick Clurman states categorically that he merely gave Martin a list of potential sources and was too busy to submit to an interview. Shirley Clurman says she spoke with Martin "for 20 minutes, maximum." Asked about the author's assertion that Clare and Randolph Churchill were lovers, Mrs. Clurman has a succinct retort: "Garbage!"

These are not the only credibility gaps. Henry & Clare is rife with errors, undocumented innuendo, non sequiturs and contradictions. Martin shows little understanding of how the Luce organization worked; the portraits of his principals are caricature-crude, especially in the case of Clare. In biography even more than architecture, God is in the details. By that standard, Henry & Clare deserves the scathing verdict that Luce often penciled on drafts of unsatisfactory stories: "Needs work."