cover image Letitia Baldrige's Complete Guide to the New Manners for the '90s: A Complete Guide to Etiquette

Letitia Baldrige's Complete Guide to the New Manners for the '90s: A Complete Guide to Etiquette

Letitia Baldrige. Scribner Book Company, $30 (672pp) ISBN 978-0-89256-320-3

Baldridge's experience as Jacqueline Kennedy's chief of staff at the White House and as social secretary at U.S. embassies in Europe lend weight to her counsel on etiquette dilemmas. While advising on such tricky problems as eating a sloppy pizza, a woman's asking a man for a date, and how much to tip, Baldridge ( Complete Guide to Executive Manners ) also offers help for more important situations often unique to contemporary society. People nowadays, she declares, must get along in stepfamilies and with live-in lovers and cope with the myriad financial and logistic ramifications of assorted households. Detailed and accessible, her advice is an extension of the Golden Rule. Caring for others, Baldridge assures us, is the key to etiquette. Good manners are the fruits of sensitivity to human beings, ``which translates to kindness, compassion and thoughtfulness.'' Illustrations not seen by PW. (Feb.)