The devoted admirer of any particularly good or successful book, especially in the field of humor, awaits with apprehension the arrival of a sequel. Partisans of Stephen Potter's "Gamesmanship," first published two or three years ago, have been on edge for some time now with the knowledge that a sequel was (inevitably) forthcoming. And there was some justification for their worries. "Gamesmanship" was an excellent book, but it was based on a very simple principle of humor, namely, that very ordinary ideas can be made excruciatingly funny if dressed up in formal categories and labeled with big names. There was considerable doubt that another book based on this same principle could be anything but a dull (though profitable) rehash.

Well, the sequel has come, and has been called, obviously enough, "Lifemanship," and it is good. Potter uses the same technique, but he has not run dry - Lifemanship is every bit as charming a science as Gamesmanship. It is, in fact, simply an extension of Gamesmanship, which is Potter's big name for psychological warfare in friendly games, into the province of life. Where before Potter spoke of "Nice Chapmanship" (the art of putting the opponent in an embarrassing position by being excessively nice to him) he now speaks of "Weekendmanship" (the art, to put it roughly, of dominating a weekend gathering).

As a mater of fact, as one might suspect from the fact that the sequel is as good as the original, the secret of Potter's charm does not lie in the humorous gimmick he uses (Definition Humor is an old and overworked technique) But in his deft touch: shrewd use of examples, characters, and dialogue, and delicately pitched understatement (along with plenty of overstatement). And there is also that pleasant touch of satire, which marked the earlier book.

There is plenty of simple labeling ("Lowbrowmanship," "Woomanship," "Daily Mirrorship") but we get the real Potter charm in such characters as Hope-Tipping of Buttermere who "first made a name for himself in 1930 by saying that 'the one thing that was lacking, of course, from D. H. Lawrence's novels, was the consciousness of sexual relationship, the male and female element in life.'" Hope-tipping may be a formula man, and the humor which made him may be limited, but he has the resi spark of original humor. So does "Lifemanship."