Joseph Lelyveld

"I do not accept the claim of saintliness," said Mohandas Gandhi in 1920, when he had not yet been given the spiritual title of "mahatma. " "I am prone to as many weaknesses as you are. " These words are quoted at the very outset of "Great Soul," and author Joseph Lelyveld is quick to warn his readers that he does not intend to write about the iconic Gandhi that we all think we know. Rather, he proposes to "follow him at ground level as he struggled to impose his vision on an often recalcitrant India" and to focus on "incidents and themes that have often been underplayed.

"I do not accept the claim of saintliness," said Mohandas Gandhi in 1920, when he had not yet been given the spiritual title of "mahatma. " "I am prone to as many weaknesses as you are. " These words are quoted at the very outset of "Great Soul," and author Joseph Lelyveld is quick to warn his readers that he does not intend to write about the iconic Gandhi that we all think we know. Rather, he proposes to "follow him at ground level as he struggled to impose his vision on an often recalcitrant India" and to focus on "incidents and themes that have often been underplayed.

The New York Times announced the appointment of a new executive editor Thursday and the return to its ranks of one of the nation's more prominent journalists. Joseph Lelyveld, a Pulitzer Prize winner who has been the paper's managing editor for four years, will become executive editor on July 1. Returning to the Times as managing editor will be Eugene L. Roberts Jr., 61, who left the paper two decades ago to win honors during 18 years as executive editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

BOOKS Rebecca Skloot Science writer Rebecca Skloot will read from and discuss "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," a deeply reported exploration of the life and legacy of a poor black woman who died of cancer in 1951 but whose cell samples, taken without her knowledge, allowed for countless medical breakthroughs, including the polio vaccine. Central Library, 630 W. 5th St., L.A. 7 p.m. Free (reservations recommended). (213) 228-7025. http://www.aloudla.org . Deborah Vankin and Jen Wang Two debut graphic novelists will be on hand to present their works, both of which capture the indirection and heedless energy of youth.

As Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld was fading away in a Cleveland hospice, his son gripped the older man's hand, reflecting on the "paradox of this unfailingly loving father who was almost as consistently beyond reach." It would be years before those reflections propelled veteran New York Times foreign correspondent and editor Joseph Lelyveld to explore things he "only half understood or never grasped at all while they were happening" in his boyhood.

This book is not an easy read. Perhaps no book about South Africa is, or will be for a long time to come. Its author, Joseph Lelyveld, now The New York Times bureau chief in London, is one of America's most respected journalists.

Joseph Lelyveld, widely credited with guiding the New York Times to the peak of its long-term journalistic excellence, will retire as executive editor in September and will be succeeded by Howell Raines, the editor of the paper's editorial pages. Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of the Times, made the announcement of the changes late Monday afternoon in the paper's third-floor newsroom. Lelyveld, who turned 64 last month, could have remained as executive editor until his 65th birthday.

Some mornings lately, the newspaper that is historically the most influential in America is inspiring a little eye-rubbing, even some expressions of astonishment. Is this the same paper that for so long has set standards in American journalism? One headline, under a picture of a prominent basketball coach with his arms stretched upright, tries to be funny by echoing a deodorant commercial: "Raise your hands if you're sure."

BOOKS Rebecca Skloot Science writer Rebecca Skloot will read from and discuss "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks," a deeply reported exploration of the life and legacy of a poor black woman who died of cancer in 1951 but whose cell samples, taken without her knowledge, allowed for countless medical breakthroughs, including the polio vaccine. Central Library, 630 W. 5th St., L.A. 7 p.m. Free (reservations recommended). (213) 228-7025. http://www.aloudla.org . Deborah Vankin and Jen Wang Two debut graphic novelists will be on hand to present their works, both of which capture the indirection and heedless energy of youth.

Great Soul: Mahatma Gandhi and His Struggle With India Joseph Lelyveld Alfred A. Knopf: 432 pps., $28.95

As Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld was fading away in a Cleveland hospice, his son gripped the older man's hand, reflecting on the "paradox of this unfailingly loving father who was almost as consistently beyond reach." It would be years before those reflections propelled veteran New York Times foreign correspondent and editor Joseph Lelyveld to explore things he "only half understood or never grasped at all while they were happening" in his boyhood.

Joseph Lelyveld, widely credited with guiding the New York Times to the peak of its long-term journalistic excellence, will retire as executive editor in September and will be succeeded by Howell Raines, the editor of the paper's editorial pages. Arthur Sulzberger Jr., publisher of the Times, made the announcement of the changes late Monday afternoon in the paper's third-floor newsroom. Lelyveld, who turned 64 last month, could have remained as executive editor until his 65th birthday.

The New York Times announced the appointment of a new executive editor Thursday and the return to its ranks of one of the nation's more prominent journalists. Joseph Lelyveld, a Pulitzer Prize winner who has been the paper's managing editor for four years, will become executive editor on July 1. Returning to the Times as managing editor will be Eugene L. Roberts Jr., 61, who left the paper two decades ago to win honors during 18 years as executive editor of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Some mornings lately, the newspaper that is historically the most influential in America is inspiring a little eye-rubbing, even some expressions of astonishment. Is this the same paper that for so long has set standards in American journalism? One headline, under a picture of a prominent basketball coach with his arms stretched upright, tries to be funny by echoing a deodorant commercial: "Raise your hands if you're sure."

This book is not an easy read. Perhaps no book about South Africa is, or will be for a long time to come. Its author, Joseph Lelyveld, now The New York Times bureau chief in London, is one of America's most respected journalists.

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The winners of the 1986 Los Angeles Times Book Prizes converge--in effect, if not by design--on the distinctly contemporary theme of oppression. Geoffrey Hosking concludes his history of the Soviet Union with praise for the Soviet peoples' "remarkable capacity for . . . arranging their lives so as to steer round and even passively resist the oppressive regime which rules them."