First Book

S ince Washington has had a majority African-American population for many years, monuments in the city to important blacks should be a cinch to locate, right? At least that's what author and journalist Jesse J. Holland thought when he moved to the nation's capital a decade ago and embarked on a mission to acquaint himself with the history of a city that is practically overrun with statues. What he discovered was eye-opening, he told an audience of 30 who gathered Wednesday to hear him talk about his book, "Black Men Built the Capitol," at the central library in Columbia.

NEW YORK - A rare copy of Edgar Allan Poe's first book has sold for $662,500, smashing the previous record price for American literature. The copy of "Tamerlane and Other Poems" had been estimated to sell Friday for between $500,000 and $700,000 at Christie's auction house in New York City. The previous record is believed to be $250,000 for a copy of the same book sold nearly two decades ago. The 40-page collection of poems was published in 1827. Poe wrote the book shortly after moving to Boston to start his literary career.

They've got to be one of the oddest-looking couples in rock: this big, hulking black man who looks as if he just stepped off a football field, and this wiry, streetwise white guy, with his scruffy beard that, even when they met in the early 1970s, screamed beatnik chic. But Clarence Clemons and Bruce Springsteen have made for far more than some odd visuals in their 35-plus years together. They've made some great music, with Springsteen writing the songs and Clemons, immortalized as "The Big Man" on 1976's "Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out," blasting out some of the rock era's most powerful sax solos.

Crispin Hellion Glover has been walking his own artistic path for years, combining mass-market acceptance - as the father and classmate of Michael J. Fox's character in "Back to the Future," or as the silent heavy in the two "Charlie's Angels" movies - with edgier, more idiosyncratic fare that tends to challenge his audience's sensibilities. He'll be at the Charles Theatre tonight to present a movie he has produced, "It Is Fine. Everything is Fine," and an audiovisual program called "Crispin Hellion Glover's Big Slide Show."

She'd been stressed out by a pressure-packed job, and the lingering pain of divorce didn't help. But Joan Lehmann, an emergency room physician in Glen Burnie, never guessed she'd find herself sitting bolt upright one night, her heart pounding, jolted awake by the worst nightmare she could remember. There was a wiry young man, running for his life through the snow, his bare feet trailing blood. There was the 5-year-old girl lying in his arms. And there was her dread that if their pursuer caught them, he'd kill them on the spot.

She'd been stressed out by a pressure-packed job, and the lingering pain of divorce didn't help. But Joan Lehmann, an emergency room physician in Glen Burnie, never guessed she'd find herself sitting bolt upright one night, her heart pounding, jolted awake by the worst nightmare she could remember. There was a wiry young man, running for his life through the snow, his bare feet trailing blood. There was the 5-year-old girl lying in his arms. And there was her dread that if their pursuer caught them, he'd kill them on the spot.

She's been called a publicity-seeker, a sinner, a true talent. What her fans and critics haven't called her, for the most part, is by her real name. And that's the way she likes it. The enigmatic erotica author widely known by her pseudonym, Zane, began her writing career by posting stories on the Internet and quickly soared to popularity. Some publishers called her material too "risque" for the general public, so she self-published her first three books, selling more than 250,000 copies.

DOROTHY SARNOFF, 94 Self-help pioneer Sweaty palms, nervous laughter, a Brooklyn accent, panic-induced silences. These were just a few of the image blemishes addressed by Dorothy Sarnoff, an opera singer and Broadway star who had a much bigger second career as one of the first, and most influential, image consultants, coaxing stage-worthy performances from business executives preparing a big speech, ambassadors on their way to foreign assignments and...