Margaret Halsey; Author on English Customs, U.S. Race Relations

Margaret Halsey, 86, author who twitted English customs and wrote about American race relations. A native of Yonkers, N.Y., who attended Skidmore College in New York, Halsey began at the secretarial level in publishing and married Henry Simon, the brother of publisher Richard L. Simon. When the newlyweds moved to Devon, England, she wrote long letters home about English eccentricities. Her brother-in-law commissioned her to write what became a best-selling book in 1938, “With Malice Toward Some.” The book, which sold about 600,000 copies, mocked such things as English pie crust, noting, “The English eat it, and when they stand up and walk away, they are hardly bent over at all.” Her later books were addressed more to race and other social issues. Among them were “Some of My Best Friends Are Soldiers,” “Color Blind: A White Woman Looks at the Negro,” “The Pseudo-Ethic: A Speculation on American Politics and Morals” and “No Laughing Matter: The Autobiography of a WASP.” On Tuesday in White Plains, N.Y.