Died. Yusif Bedas, 56, former president of Lebanon's Intra Bank, central figure in one of the Middle East's most spectacular financial scandals; after a long illness; in Lucerne, Switzerland. Bedas founded a money-changing business on a $4,000 stake in 1948, built it into a $350 million empire centered around Intra. But in 1966, as depositors' money suddenly flowed out of Beirut, Intra collapsed; Lebanese authorities held him responsible for "unorthodox banking practices," but Bedas maintained that "enemies" had conspired to break him.

Died. Enid Blyton, seventyish, prolific British author of calm, cozy children's books; of a coronary thrombosis; in a London hospital. Despite criticism that her work was sentimental, few bedtimes were complete without a story about Toyland, inhabited by Little Noddy the Pixie and Mr. Plod the Policeman. She authored some 400 titles (translated into 33 languages), and her sales in Britain alone topped the 85 million mark.

Died. Agnes Boulton Kaufman, 75, second of Playwright Eugene O'Neill's three wives; of an intestinal obstruction; in Point Pleasant, N.J. Her marriage to the iconoclastic author lasted eleven years before ending in divorce because, as she wrote in her memoir, Part of a Long Story, O'Neill wanted a "wife, mistress, mother and valet." Their life was like a battle scene played in a refrigerator: she cared little for the theater and enjoyed parties; he was a recluse whose only outlets were quiet drinking and dramatic writing.

Died. Arnold Zweig, 81, master of German letters whose 82 novels and plays dealt mainly with the intrinsic evils of war and its impact on the human soul; after a long illness; in East Berlin. From his experiences as a German soldier in World War I, Zweig fashioned his most famous novel, The Case of Sergeant Grischa, an evocative, existential account of a soldier executed as an example to the Kaiser's troops. Expelled as a Jew by Hitler in 1933, Zweig spent 15 years in Palestine, where he wrote The Crowning of a King, a tale of intrigue and diplomacy enveloping the German General Staff, and The Axe of Wandsbek, a bitter indictment of Nazi Germany. Yet Zweig always regarded himself as a German and Socialist first and a Jew second, was persuaded "in 1948 to return to East Germany, where he became a cultural ornament of the Communist regime, even served a term in the Volkskammer (Parliament).

Died. Upton Sinclair, 90, author and social crusader who permanently affected the quality of American life (see THE NATION).

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