DAVID MARGOLICK long reported on legal affairs for The New York Times, where he wrote the weekly "At the Bar" column and covered, among other stories, the trial of O. J. Simpson. He was then a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. His many books include Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink; Strange Fruit: The Biography of a Song; Dreadful: The Short Life and Gay Times of John Horne Burns; and Elizabeth and Hazel: Two Women of Little Rock. He lives in New York City.