NONFICTION - Sept. 6, 1992

BLACK WHITE DOGS edited by J.C. Suares and BLACK WHITE CATS edited by J.C. Suares (Harper Collins: $14.95; both 78 pp.) This is highbrow cute: black-and-white photographs of cats and dogs by the likes of Edward Weston, Andre Kertesz, Imogen Cunningham and Edward Steichen. And not just any old cats and dogs; for example, F.D.R. and his dog Falla, Coolidge and his cat Tim, Nixon and Checkers, Bush and Millie, Hitchcock and Sarah (below). Many are famous in their own right: Asta, Nick and Nora’s fox terrier in the “Thin Man” series; Benji, and William Wegman’s androgynous Fay, who makes an appearance in both books. The settings, from Paris to Hollywood to the South Pole, evoke a finer, more glamorous time, before Judy’s pet emporium in L.A. charged $40 for a shampoo and blow-dry.