Speaking of Galbraith: A Personal Portrait

Although economist John Kenneth Galbraith built a career challenging the status quo, by the early 1950s he was seen by many as virtually a bona fide member of the establishment. Lively, perspicacious and affectionate, this biography does not shrink from candidly depicting Galbraith as an ``empire-building'' price-control czar during WW II; a member of the Kennedy coterie; a sometimes insensitive husband and absent father; an ambitious statesman who forever felt like ``a farm boy trying to rise above'' his rural Canadian roots. The author describes Galbraith in his roles as Fortune editor, Harvard professor, ambassador to India, TV star, novelist and skier. A biographer of Roger Baldwin, Lamson enlivens her wide-angled profile with closeups of JFK and his wife, Nehru, Adlai Stevenson, Eugene McCarthy, Nixon. Photos. (Aug.)