Book wraps.

The late Vicente Garcia-Marquez in the introduction to his biography, Massine (Knopf, $35), confesses that it was "a quite misbegotten, though endlessly fascinating, crusade" trying to capture the inner life of noted dancer and choreographer Leonide Massine (1895-1979). Acclaimed for his vibrant performances onstage, he was a notoriously cold fish in rehearsal. Fortunately, his outer life was well documented and more accessible. Garcia-Marquez has drawn on Massine's autobiography and diligently mined the vast material about such colleagues as Diaghilev, Stravinsky, Picasso, Satie, Falla, Matisse, Dali, Chagall, and Visconti. Though the book has its dry and-then-he-choreographed stretches (necessary, unfortunately, for no catalogue raisonne is given), it performs a valuable service by chronicling a career that epitomized ballet between the two world wars. By the 1950s "the public was moving away from Massine's stylized, overly detailed, and distinctly personal story ballets and towards neoclassicism." Ironically, he reached his largest audience as Grisha in Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's Red Shoes which was released in the U.S. in 1948, when New York City Ballet was founded and Balanchine's sun was in its blinding ascent.

Incidentally, St. Martin's Press next month is reissuing the 1978 "novelization" of The Red Shoes: The Classic Story ($16.95). It's a godsend for anyone who couldn't imagine what Vicky, Boris, and Julian were thinking during their close-ups.

Bill T. Jones details almost everything about his private and professional life in his autobiography, Last Night on Earth (Pantheon, $30), except Arlene Croce's scornful dismissal of his communal mixed-media piece Still/Here as "victim art" that is beyond criticism. Admirers of Still/Here shouldn't be put off by the fact that a similar charge can also be lodged against much of this book. There's no denying, however, that Jones has had quite a career; free-lance writer Peggy Gillespie has helped him recall it in coherent, unpretentious prose.

Harwood Academic Publishers continues to issue scholarly studies about dance in all its forms. Two recent publications are Modern Dance in Germany and the United States: Crosscurrents and Influences ($36; $19 paper), by Isa Partsch-Bergsohn, and The Dance of Death: Kurt Jooss and the Weimar Years ($57; $24 paper), by Suzanne K. Walther. Gordon and Breach, an affiliate of Harwood, has issued Ann Hutchinson Guest's labanotated edition of La Vivandiere Pas de Six ($58; $34 paper), transcribed from Arthur Saint-Leon's score. Along with contributing a long essay, Guest has selected many performance photos, mostly of dancers from St. Petersburg Ballet.

Two books devoted to great dancers of the past are now in paperback editions. Alice Helpern's The Technique of Martha Graham (Morgan & Morgan, $25), last published in 1991, illustrates essential steps and poses in the Graham canon with 65 black-and-white photographs (among these, one of Merce Cunningham in 1942 demonstrating a plie with back leg attitude). A Graham catalogue raisonne and a list of her dancers from 1926 to 1991 add to its value. Isadora Speaks: Writings & Speeches of Isadora Duncan, edited by Franklin Rosemont and first published in 198 1, has been reissued by Charles H. Kerr Publishing of Chicago ($12). Ann Barzel supplies a preface to this new edition.

Another paperback is the revised edition of Tap! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories, 1900-1955 (Da Capo, $19.95), a 1990 collection of interviews with notable tappers by Rusty E. Frank. Her subjects include Fayard Nicholas, Peg Leg Bates, Bunny Briggs, LaVaughn Robinson, Hermes Pan (he recalls Fred Astaire), Ann Miller, Brenda Bufalino, Shirley Temple (she recalls Bill Robinson), and--thanks to the California electorate's special taste in politicians--a former U.S. senator, Metro's own statesman, George Murphy.

Journalists, historians and librarians should welcome Leslie Getz's Dancers and Choreographers: A Selected Bibliography (Moyer Bell, $29.95; $18.95 paper). In this catalogue Getz has listed the major twentieth-century books and scholarly articles about dance.

Jacob's Feast is "not a conventional cookbook," says editor in chief Marilyn Adler James of this privately printed collection of recipes contributed by artists associated with Jacob's Pillow. It certainly looks like no other cookbook, because dancers and choreographers also donated photographs and anecdotes. Copies are available for $17 from the Pillow at P. O. Box 287, Lee, MA 01238 (Massachusetts residents should add 75 cents sales tax). All proceeds go to the Pillow's Scholarship Endowment Fund.

Eric Wolfram, formerly of San Francisco Ballet, has written Your Dance Resume. A Preparatory Guide to the Audition (Dancepress, $13.95 paper) to help fellow dancers get their job searches off on the right foot. He also discusses cover letters, photos, and how to psych yourself up for the audition. You may call [phone] for direct orders.