For the journalist, writing books is very much a busman's holiday. In recent months several TIME staff members have devoted vacations, weekends, evenings and sometimes leaves of absence to completing books.

Five TIME correspondents have produced volumes that grew directly out of assignments for the magazine. Hays Gorey, who reported on Watergate, recalls how in August 1974 "John Dean called me, said he was preparing to enter prison, and he wanted 'Mo' to be occupied." Gorey and Maureen Dean solved the problem by collaborating on "Mo": A Woman's View of Watergate. Washington Bureau Chief Hugh Sidey wrote the text for Portrait of a President, a look at Gerald Ford, and for These United States, an homage to the country's natural beauty. Roland Flamini's tour as TIME'S Hollywood reporter led to Scarlett, Rhett and a Cast of Thousands, the story of how Gone With the Wind was made. Hong Kong Bureau Chief Roy Rowan spent a week on board the Mayaguez after the ship was rescued from the Cambodians, taping the recollections of captain and crew. During a six-week "vacation" he wrote from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. to produce The Four Days of Mayaguez. Jerrold Schecter, head of our Moscow bureau from 1968 to 1970 and now TIME'S diplomatic editor, enlisted not only his wife but their five children to write An American Family in Moscow.

Four New York-based staffers have also put their expertise between hard covers. Frederic Golden, for six years our Science writer, explores "real mysteries, as opposed to phony ones like the Bermuda Triangle" in Quasars, Pulsars and Black Holes. Senior Editor Otto Friedrich spent a year's leave working on Going Crazy, a subject he chose "because it's all around us" (see BOOKS). Staff Writer Stephen Schlesinger spent 18 monastic months writing The New Reformers, an analysis of recent liberal movements. Soon to be published is Associate Editor David Tinnin's Hit Team, the untold story of the assassination campaign launched by Israeli intelligence to avenge the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre.

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