Scorpion Tongues is look at the game of gossip - and how it has played itself out with tawdry tales about everyone from George Washington to Eleanor Roosevelt to Bill Clinton. Gail Collins, has tracked down a parade of printed innuendo and whispered rumors that provides a revealing view of this irresistible side of American history.

Collins shows that gossip can be as unpredictable as a summer tornado, flattening one reputation while it passes over another with hardly a rustle. One generation's social drinker can be tarred with the reputation of a hopeless alcoholic in the next - a lesson Theodore Roosevelt, Mamie Eisenhower, and a recent defense secretary learned to their sorrow.

Franklin Roosevelt and John Kennedy sailed above the rumors about their extramarital adventures, while Gary Hart's political career sank with his vacation on the Monkey Business.

Scorpion Tongues also shows how the public's fascination with the private lives of movie stars and other entertainers affected how they talked about celebrities with more serious job descriptions - including the tale of a popular magazine that began with a mandate to expose political scandals but quickly shifted to outing gay singers and debriefing prostitutes who serviced a beloved TV star.