HOW I BECAME HETTIE JONES by...

HOW I BECAME HETTIE JONES by Hettie Jones (Penguin: $8.95). In her autobiography, the children’s writer and former wife of Leroi Jones (who subsequently changed his name to Imamu Amiri Baraka) recalls the Beat scene in Greenwich Village during the ‘50s: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, Franz Kline, Frank O’Hara and Billie Holiday are among the noted artists who make fleeting appearances in the text. She also chronicles the hostility she encountered, first from whites and later from black nationalists, to their mixed marriage. Unconsciously, Jones reveals the conflicts inherent in any relationship between artists of unequal talent. Aware of her husband’s brilliance, she took proofreading and secretarial jobs to support their family, while yearning to be accepted as an author in her own right. The children’s books she’s written since the divorce have enjoyed a modest success, but she has yet to escape her husband’s shadow: Readers are more likely to pick up this book to read about the early career of Leroi Jones than to read the life of Hettie Cohen Jones.