When Mr. Clayton's definitive volume, "The Complete Book of Breads" (Simon & Schuster, 1973), was published, bread baking was just being discovered by many Americans.

One of the best photography books of the year, Friedlander (Museum of Modern Art, $75), is also clearly the definitive volume about this important photographer.

There is no definitive volume on all of the edible North American plants, but some very good books are available.

But they leave gaping holes near the beginning and end of what could have been a single definitive volume.

Sliding Piece Puzzles (by Edward Hordern, 1986, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-853204-0) is said to be the definitive volume on this type of puzzle.

It is widely regarded as the definitive volume on Virtual storage access method (VSAM), a data management system introduced by IBM in the 1970s.

This definitive volume, prepared following the discovery of the 1690 instrument, contains several essays by experts on Cristofori and on early instruments.

Lowell, who hoped to publish the definitive volume of biography, was forced to pursue a reluctant and rather mischievously reticent Day for these artifacts with little success.

The numbers are very preliminary, Mike, and we're still a huge distance from nailing down a definitive volume.

Students of Mr. Hughes's work said they had no idea that he was working on what his publishers are calling a definitive volume.