Comment by Jonathan Schell. At the Soviet Communist Party Congress, General Secretary Mikhail S. Gorbachev gave a speech that lasted for 5 1/2 hours, as if he hoped that the vigor and loquaciousness of one person could compensate for the passivity and silence of the delegates. By all reports, he finds that the Soviet...

Fiction The Holy Terror by William Maxwell. Writer recalls his childhood in Lincoln, Illinois with his older brother Edward, nicknamed Hap--because of the cartoon character Happy Hooligan. Because Hap died last summer, the writer is finally able to talk about a secret he's kept all these years. At 5, Hap was a strong and active child...

The Theatre by Edith Oliver.

The Talk of the Town Medicine Robes and Black Cowboys by Ian Frazier. Second part of a two-part talk story. This one is about black cowboys. Writer visits art gallery in the Adam Clayton Poweell, Jr., State Office Building, on 125 Street, to watch a triple feature of Westerns. The Museum of African American History and Arts (which is presently trying to...

Jazz by Whitney Balliett.

The Talk of the Town Spirit by William McKibben. Talk story about Christina Cox, who is presenting herself as Ms. Liberty, the living symbol of the Lady with the Torch. She just named herself Ms. Liberty, and made herself a sash embroidered with the title, and went around gathering support. Ms. Cox, a beautiful actress, has already arranged to...

Books by George Steiner.

A Reporter at Large APARTMENT by William McKibben. REPORTER AT LARGE about the acquisition of energy for local household needs & disposal of waste. In New York City power is supplied by Con Edison. Writer first concentrates on electrical power. He visits the La Grande hydroelectric complex-3 dams spaced along 350 miles of sub-Arctic Quebec taiga...

Our Far-Flung Correspondents A NIGHT AT THE DRESDEN OPERA by John Lukacs. OUR FAR-FLUNG CORRESPONDENTS about a trip to Dresden in East Germany, and a visit to the Semper Opera house there. Writer drives to Dresden, stopping at an enormous pedestrian mall, the Pragerstrasse. The mall has an Eastern, Soviet look rather than a Midwestern one... Something of an older Germany...

Fiction Things That Matter by Wright Morris. Story about Enid and Carolyn, who both love to gamble and first meet in an all-night restaurant in Reno. Enid is on her way back to England from Australia, after a failed romance with a sailor. She stops in Reno, then settles nearby at a dude ranch. Carolyn owns...

Poetry Gargoyle by Dave Smith. Who knows how things are in the world...

Poetry Sea Fogs at the Chequammitt Inn by Brendan Galvin. In the midst of the deepest...