By Walker Russell Mead. Knopf. 374 pp. $30
By Kenneth A. Manaster. Univ. of Chicago Press. 332 pp. $27.50
By Mark LiIIa. New York Review Books. 216 pp. $24.95
POETRY SPEAKS: Hear Great Poets Read Their Work from Tennyson to Plath. Edited by Elise Paschen and Rebekah Presson Mosby; Dominique Raccah, series editor. Narrated by Charles Osgood. Sourcebooks. 336 pp. plus 3 CDs. $49.95
By Brant Wenegrat. Oxford Univ. Press. 292 pp. $35
By Michael Barone. Regnery. 338 pp. $27.95
By Wallace Tucker and Karen Tucker. Harvard Univ. Press. 295 pp. $27.95
By Richard Stone. Perseus Publishing. 250 pp. $26
THE WARDEN OF ENGLISH: The Life of H. W. Fowler. By Jenny McMorris. Oxford Univ. Press. 320 pp. $27.50