I Remember

CBS network anchor Rather ( The Camera Never Blinks ) has not had a particularly good press, but that may change with publication of this autobiography, written with the author of Bay of Pigs. Born in 1931 into a family headed by a blue-collar worker and living on the wrong side of the bayou in Houston, the future newsman grew up during the Depression and World War II; with his father steadily employed, there was no actual privation. As a youth Rather suffered a long siege of rheumatic fever, then curable only by bed rest, which ended his dream of becoming a football star. He had a large, interesting and supportive extended family, its members recalled affectionately here. The book takes Rather to his departure for Sam Houston State Teachers College in Huntsville, Tex., leaving material for a sequel. The general effect is warm and engagingly anecdotal. The style, however, is strange: it consists almost exclusively of short sentences with no polysyllabic words, as if to reinforce the impression that Rather is just folks. Photos not seen by PW. (Oct.)