The Theatre by Edith Oliver.

Books by Naomi Bliven.

Comment by Jeremy Bernstein. Obituary of physicist Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac, on Saturday, October 20th, in Florida. A physicist we know sent us a long letter about Dirac. Tells anecdotes about him and about his accomplishments...

A Reporter at Large NORTH OF THE C.P. LINE by John McPhee. REPORTER AT LARGE about John McPhee, a game-warden pilot for the State of Maine with the same name as the writer. Tells about their correspondence, and how they met in the middle of a lake in the North Maine. Woods, one in a plane, one in a canoe. McPhee...

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

The Talk of the Town Old Rug by William McKibben. Talk story about Leslie Tillett, a British textile designer who was recently in Leningrad to examine the oldest carpet on earth, which was discovered in 1950, and is now kept in a climate-controlled case in the Hermitage. It was discovered in a grave in Siberia, which belonged to an...

Letter from Europe by Jane Kramer. Every Sunday night this fall 15 million Germans--East and West--watched a TV serial called "Heimat.O It covered a century in the life of 3 families from a Hunsruck mountain village and portrayed a romantic view of Germany that many people long for. West Germans are talking about a...

The Talk of the Town Partly Cloudy by William McKibben. Talk story about the list of hurricane names for the next few seasons and about how to predict the weather. Writer talked with Jeffrey Freilich and Robert Burgio, two Urban Park Rangers at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx, who told him about the hurricanes and gave him some tips...

Fiction Secret Ballot by Veronica Geng. The writer is afraid that his family will find out how he voted. He knows that the ballots are secret by law and knows it's ridiculous to worry. He cut his seminar at 3 P.M. to vote, when his Mom and Dad were still at work, so they couldn't have...

Comment by Lawrence Weschler. Comment about the cynical attitudes toward human rights exhibited by an Eastern European spokesman and by an American embassy official. Writer met Aryeh Neier, vice chairman of Americas Watch, an organization that monitors human-rights violations in this hemisphere. He had just returned from an emergency 4-day visit to...

The Current Cinema THREE CHEERS by Pauline Kael.

Fiction Broderie Anglaise by Penelope Gilliatt. A story about Grania Byam, a 15-year-old English girl who works for a magazine called Embroidery Weekly. Tells about her job as the years go on and she marries and ultimately quits the job...

The Talk of the Town Flap by William McKibben. Talk story about Dr. Merlin Tuttle, the founder and president of Bat Conservation International...

Poetry Leap of Faith by David St. John. No less fabulous than the carved marble inner / Ear of a lost Michelangelo and more / Blind...

Poetry Aerie by John Updike. By following many a color-coded corridor / taking an elevator up through the heart...