Covarrubias

Miguel Covarrubias (1904-1956), the precociously gifted Mexican caricaturist and artist later turned anthropologist, author and ballet director, remains comparatively unfamiliar in the U.S. But he was a darling of the New York smart set during the 1920s and '30s, when his caricatures were featured in Vanity Fair and the New Yorker and he became a protege of Carl van Vechten and Alfred Knopf, who published his books. Williams's biography is thus important as the first full-scale portrait. In the course of painstakingly tracing Covarrubias's life and his association with such luminaries as Diego Rivera, Nelson Rockefeller and Carlos Chavez, Williams reveals the long-term cultural and social links between Mexican and North American elites, at a time when such links are being renewed. As granddaughter of former Mexican president Plutarco Calles and a friend of Covarrubias's American wife, Rosa Cowen, the author is well qualified to cover this material, though the book suffers from some lack of focus. Moving forward chronologically, with little interpretation, analysis or shaping, Williams depends heavily on the reminiscences of eyewitnesses to events in the lives of the Covarrubiases; and only when such events are interesting is the book interesting-as for instance, in the account of the scandalous dissolution of the couple's marriage. The illustrations would be more effective if they corresponded more closely with the text. (Nov.)