The Left-Hander's Handbook is a collection of books about

left-handers and left-handedness, in which the author takes a hilarious look at the inside-out world of left-handedness. DeKay says that it could prove what left-handers have always suspected - that they're not only different from everybody else, they're better.

Can you name five left-handed Presidents of the United States? How about the two left-handed Beatles? Are there more left-handed men or women? (Answers below).

In ancient times, things weren't so bad for left-handers. The Greeks even read in alternating left-to-right, right-to-left lines. It was the Romans who caused much of the trouble. They invented the right-handed handshake, the right-handed salute, and the left-to-right alphabet.

Since then, things have only gotten worse for left-handers. Today, nearly everything is right-handed: scissors, can-openers, wristwatches.

The author says that left-handers are one of the world's most misunderstood, ignored, and maligned minorities. Yet among them are some of history's most creative, colorful, and important people. Of course, there's also Billy the Kid, Jack the Ripper, and the Boston Strangler!

On the other hand, Napoleon, Charlemagne, and Alexander the Great were left-handed, as were Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti, the two greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance.

Being left-handed seems to be an advantage in the great American pastime - baseball. A left-handed pitcher can keep an eye on first base during his wind-up, and cut down a runner's lead. Thirty percent of all major league pitchers are southpaws.

The left-handed first baseman can cover a tremendous area of the infield with his right (gloved) hand and also has an advantage throwing to second for the double play. Fortyeight percent of all major league first basemen are left-handed.

But, according to deKay, there are absolutely no left-handed catchers.

Good old Dr. Spock, who usually recommends you let your kid do almost anything, suggests you discourage left-handedness in young children.

Maybe, says the book, the final, and wisest, medical opinion on the subject comes from neurosurgeon Joseph Bogan: "Right-handers are a bunch of chocolate soldiers. If you've seen one, you've seen 'em all. But left-handers are something else again."

The goofy, unpredictable nature of left-handers is why so many of them turn out to be great achievers, including the assortment of saints, scalawags, heroes, wackos, and geniuses listed in one section of the book. These include Astronaut Buz Aldrin, musician CPE Bach; comedian Carol Burnett; author Lewis Carroll; Ty Cobb; John Dillinger; Benjamin Franklin; Greta Garbo; Judy Garland; Whoopi Goldberg; Cary Grant; Marilyn Monroe; Cole Porter; Dick Van Dyke; and Queen Victoria.

The four books included in this one volume are "The Left-Handed Book," "The Natural Superiority of the Left-Hander," "Left-Handed Kids," and "The World's Greatest Left-Handers."

Answers to questions above: lefthanded Presidents are Garfield, Truman, Ford, Bush, and Clinton. Left-handed Beatles are Paul and Ringo; and there are more men who are left-handed than women.