The Theatre HURSTON & WOLFE by Edith Oliver.

The Talk of the Town Roles by Adam Gopnik. Talk story about attending the National Shakespeare Competition sponsored annually by the English-Speaking Union. Writer meets Rod Harrison, of Tuscon, Arizona, who comes to NYC for the competition... As it happened, Rod's performance as Shylock on Saturday, did not go over as big as he had hoped--a hidebound...

The Current Cinema CONSPICUOUS CONSUMER by Terrence Rafferty.

Musical Events by Andrew Porter.

Fiction Earthquake Damage by Alice Adams. Lila Lewisohn is a psychiatrist from San Francisco. She was flying home from a psychiatry conference in Toronto when the San Francisco earthquake (1989) struck. The plane has to turn back. She is suffering from insecurity in her love relationship with another psychiatrist named Julian Brownfield, with whom she became...

Profiles THE TACTICIAN by John Newhouse. PROFILE of James Addison Baker III, Secretary of State and close friend of Pres. George Bush...

Comment by Mark Hertsgaard. Comment about "Attacks on the Press 1989" issued by the Committee to Protect Journalists, a non-profit organization based in New York. The report contains the alarming news that 53 journalists were killed in the line of duty last year--more than twice as many as the year before. Most...

The Talk of the Town Sign of Spring by Joe Sweet. Notice observed in the window of a shoe store in Rockport, Massachusetts: TO ALL MY CUSTOMERS I am giving up my paper route so that I can play baseball. Thank you all for being so nice. It was a lot of fun I am sorry if I messed up sometimes...

The Talk of the Town On the Trail by Anthony Hiss. Talk story about a new connecting line on the Metro-North Upper Harlem route to Brewster North. The new line, operating on weekends and holidays, will shuttle riders from Brewster North to an open air station on the Appalachian Trail. This idea first occurred to regional planner Benton MacKaye in...

Annals of Sport PRIDE OF THE SUNSET by Bill Barich. ANNALS OF SPORT about Irish Pat Lawlor, a good-natured San Francisco junior middleweight whose talents are not unlimited. He gave an exhibition match with Roberto Duran, and afterwards went to the Boathouse, a sports bar, where young Irish-Catholic men pursue young Irish-Catholic women... Boxing had opened up...

A Critic at Large AFTERLIVES: THE CASE OF MACHADO DE ASSIS by Susan Sontag. A CRITIC AT LARGE about Machado de Assis, 19th-century Brazilian author of "Epitaph of a Small Winner." Writer compares "Epitaph"to"Tristram Shandy." De Assis was only 41 when he published these reminiscences of a man who has died--we learn at the opening of the book--at 64...

Fiction My Father Leaves Home by Nadine Gordimer. A daughter of a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe to South Africa returns to her father's homeland on a hunting trip. The father left home when he was 13, and went to S. Africa to be a watchmaker. He made good money, joined the Masons and married an English woman...

Poetry The "Ring" Cycle by James Merrill. They're doing a "Ring" cycle at the Met...

Poetry Perfection Wasted by John Updike. And another regrettable thing about death...

Poetry Brute Image by John Ashbery. It's a question of altitude, or latitude...