Books

Television writer Gerald Gardner. His new book, The Censorship Papers, is a collection of memos from the Hays Commission, which was the censorship arm of Hollywood's production studios from 1930 to 1968. The dossiers were released last year and Gardner covers those concerning 70 of Hollywood's best known films, including "The Maltese Falcon," "Pal Joey" and "Notorious."

George Whitmore, author of Someone Was Here, profiles of people whose lives have been transformed by AIDS, like the 32-year-old New York advertising executive, a counselor in a gay men's health center, health workers at an AIDS clinic in a municipal hospital. The book grew out of a highly acclaimed 1985 article in The New York Times Magazine about a man with AIDS and his counselor at a health center.

Novelist, journalist and columnist Nicholas Von Hoffman. He's the author of 10 books, including Organized Crimes and Make-Believe Presidents. He's written for The Washington Post, The Chicago Daily News, and almost every major magazine. His latest work is titled Citizen Cohn, The Life and Times of Roy Cohn.

Illustrator Ralph Steadman. Best known for his collaborations with the journalist Hunter S. Thompson (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas), Steadman's cartoons feature an America brainwashed by the mass media and manipulated by its leaders. His ink blob-splattered illustrations lampoon President Reagan, AIDS hysteria, the specter of nuclear annihilation and, of course, Richard Nixon. (Interview by Faith Middleton)

Bob Ryan, basketball writer for The Boston Globe. Together with Terry Pluto, basketball writer for the Akron Beacon Journal, Ryan has written a book that takes a microscopic look at one night in the National Basketball Association by reporting on the Jan 14, 1987 game between The Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The book is titled Forty-Eight Minutes: A Night in the Life of the N.B.A., and follows every shot, every pass, and all the pre- and post-game developments. (Interview by Faith Middleton)

Television news commentator David Brinkley. For 14 years, starting in 1956, he and Chet Huntley co-anchored "The Huntley-Brinkley Report." He now anchors the Sunday morning ABC news program "This Week with David Brinkley." Brinkley has written an account of how Washington was transformed by America's entry into World War II. The book is titled Washington Goes to War: The Extraordinary Story of the Transformation of a City and a Nation. (Interview by Faith Middleton)

Playboy and Village Voice columnist Cynthia Heimel. Heimel brings her sassy wit to the plight of the single woman of the 80s, beset with such traumas as tackling urban life and surviving the Great Boyfriend Crunch. Her books include Sex Tips for Girls and But Enough About You. (Interview by Faith Middleton)

Hedrick Smith, the Washington correspondent for The New York Times. His new book looks at power and how it works in our nation's capital. (Interview by Faith Middleton)

Ethlie Ann Vare and Greg Ptacek, authors of the book Mothers of Invention, a compilation of inventions by women. Some have been rather mundane, like Liquid Paper and drip coffee. But others include radium, the computer language COBOL and the first computer compiler. The authors are better known for their writing about rock and roll. (Interview by Faith Middleton)

Herbert Mitgang, cultural correspondent for The New York Times, and a former member of its editorial board. His new book, Dangerous Dossiers: Exposing the Secret War Against America's Greatest Authors, examines the 50-year espionage campaign waged by the CIA and the FBI against writers such as Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, William Faulkner and Norman Mailer.