NONFICTION - June 16, 1991

WHERE THERE’S A WILL: Who Inherited What and Why; The Last Wills and Testaments of the Rich and Renowned by Stephen M. Silverman (HarperCollins: $17.95; 230 pp.). The surprising thing about “Where There’s a Will” is that it holds few surprises. The rich and renowned aren’t different; they leave their estates to relatives, friends, employees, and charities just as the rest of us do. Readers hoping for revelations, sordid and otherwise, will find this book tame, but Stephen Silverman’s capsule biographies of the likes of W. H. Auden, Lillian Hellman, Harry Houdini, Ayn Rand, Mae West etc. are breezily entertaining. Trivia buffs will be pleased to learn, for example, that fashion designer Perry Ellis joined the Coast Guard to avoid serving in Vietnam and ended up in the White House Honor Guard.