To while away the days until the publication of Sarah Palin's memoirs on November 17th, Rudolph Delson is reviewing the American vice presidential literary canon.

Say you were to make a list of every American who has ever run for the vice presidency. Say you were to take that list to your local library. Say you were to sit at the reference computer, and say you were to type the names on your list into the "author" field of the electronic catalog, and say you were to run a search on each and every one. Among the results would be Doing Business by the Good Book: 52 Lessons on Success Straight from the Bible.

The authors are named David L. Steward and Robert L. Shook. Now, oddly, neither of these men has ever run for Vice President. But say that you are interested in the book anyway. Say that sitting in your local library (in the middle of the morning, in the middle of the week, in the middle of a recession) has given you the feeling that you could use a lesson on success-or fifty-two lessons on success. In other words, say you were to retrieve Doing Business by the Good Book despite the fact that it is not vice presidential literature. What would you learn? From Chapter 13, you would learn that the Bible contains the following lesson on success:

BE A CUSTOMER-DRIVEN COMPANY

From Chapter 25, you would learn that the Bible also contains this lesson:

BE A TECHNOLOGY-DRIVEN COMPANY

And from Chapter 52, you would learn that the Bible contains this lesson:

GOD BLESS AMERICA

Messrs. Steward and Shook make a good case for the Bible as a kind of DIY MBA. They write: "In Exodus 18:17-27, Jethro told Moses to stop wearing himself out by attempting to do everything himself." Lesson on success?

DELEGATION

Or, "in Exodus 4, Moses asked God to send someone else to speak on his behalf, explaining that he was not articulate. When Moses persisted in his plea, God told him to seek Aaron, who was a fluent speaker." Lesson on success? That it is important to hire good salespeople, or, as Steward and Shook put it ...

NOTHING HAPPENS UNTIL SOMETHING IS SOLD

You might think that "Nothing happens until something is sold" is a lesson on success that would be better exemplified by the story of Judas and the thirty pieces of silver, but you would digress.

At this point, having received the Gospel of God and the Gospel of Wealth (and having been impressed by the fact that Mr. Steward's company, WWT Inc., is the largest African-American owned company in America), you might begin wondering why the electronic catalog of your local library suggested Doing Business by the Good Book to you when all you were interested in was vice-presidential literature. Which is when you would notice, at the very top of the book's dust jacket, this advertisement:

With a Foreword by Former U.S. President George H. W. Bush
Former U.S. President, and Former U.S. Vice President!

Bush's foreword is about 250 words long, and is lukewarm in its praise. ("David Steward has come up with an idea that betters the way we live and work. The idea that he embodies is not actually new-it is a 2000-year-old philosophy that makes as much sense today as it did back then.") So, no, this foreword provides no evidence that Former Vice President Bush actually read the book.

Rather, it is evidence that someone owed someone a favor-or evidence that certain Republicans are eager to be seen in the company of the man who owns the largest African-American owned company in America. Still, however thin it may be, however venal it may be, the foreword to Doing Business by the Good Book is enough to get G.H.W.B. credit as a co-author in your local library's electronic catalog. And so here is a lesson on success straight from the vice-presidential canon:

THE PRICE OF POWER IS INDIGNITY.

Previously: Edmun Muskie's 'Journeys'

Rudolph Delson lives in Brooklyn. He has won no awards and earned no distinctions. His novel "Maynard & Jennica" is now available in paperback.