JOSEPH WECHSBERG, was among a generation of writers that included M.F.K. Fisher, A.J. Liebling, and Ludwig Bemelmans. Many of them found a home for their work at The New Yorker and were given carte blanche to tackle any subject they found appealing. For Wechsberg, this included most of what he perceived as the cultural life of the civilized world: music, food, travel, and the history of banking and finance. Always central to these essays and portraits were men of acknowledged accomplishment, whose lives he tried to understand in both the contexts of their own personalities and of the cultures that shaped them. Wechsberg was a man who valued perfection for its own sake, seeing its quest as worthy and its attainment as eminently possible. Reading him is like fine dining: the food is exquisite, the choice of wine perfect, and one leaves the experience feeling warmed, flattered, and fulfilled. This generous selection of his very best, now in paperback, is sure to satisfy any civilized palate.