New York: Harper & Row, 1979. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xx, 411, [1] pages. Acknowledgments and Notes. Bibliography. Index. DJ has some wear and soiling. After graduating from Harvard University in 1947, Mr. Harris began working at A. Harris & Company, a family-owned department store founded in 1886 in Dallas by his grandfather Adolph Harris. A. Harris was sold to Federated Department Stores, which owns Macy's. Mr. Harris published a children's book, ''The Night Before Christmas -- in Texas,'' a parody of the Clement Clark Moore poem. He turned to writing full time after the family business was sold. ''The Fine Art of Political Wit,'' which traced the history of political humor since the 18th century, was published in 1964. He followed with two biographies: ''Only to God: The Extraordinary Life of Godfrey Lowell Cabot,'' about the industrialist and philanthropist, which was published in 1967, and ''Upton Sinclair, American Rebel,'' about the writer and social reformer, published in 1975. In 1979, Mr. Harris wrote a history of some of America's most successful Jewish businessmen, ''Merchant Princes: An Intimate History of Jewish Families Who Built Great Department Stores.'' In a review in The New York Times, Christopher Lehmann-Haupt described the book as a freewheeling narrative that used the stories of the Filenes of Boston, the Riches of Atlanta, the Rosenwalds of Chicago and the Marcuses of Dallas, among others, to explore Jewish life, philanthropy and anecdotes. The book, the review said, was ''sturdy enough to hold regional history, gossip, personal reminiscences and a history of the art and science of department-store merchandising.''. More