The Talk of the Town Pontus Hulten by Calvin Tomkins. Talk story about the Centre Beaubourg, a vast cultural complex scheduled to open in late 1975 or early 1976 in the Marais district of Paris, not far from the now abandoned Les Halles. Interview with Pontus Hulten, a Swede, whom the French have selected to direct the modern-art museum...

The Current Cinema by Penelope Gilliatt. The great Alfred Hitchcock is being given a gala evening by the Film Society of Lincoln Center on Apr. 29th. Writer discusses his themes and mentions many of his films with their dates...

The Theatre KINDS OF CONFIDENCE by Brendan Gill.

The Sporting Scene THE SPORTING SCENE RUIDOSO by John McPhee. THE SPORTING SCENE about the 1973 All-American Futurity, a race for quarter horses held at Ruidoso Downs in New Mexico. The All-American is a 440-yard race, & has the biggest purse in the country. Most of the entries belong to millionaires. "Quarter Horse" refers to a registry...

The Art World (The Art Galleries) by Harold Rosenberg.

Fiction Milkman's Boy by Harry L. Mountzoures. A boy of twelve is taken from his home in Providence to his aunt's house in the country because his mother is sick and cannot care for him. His aunt's overprotectiveness greatly restricts him from the outdoors and boyish things. He wants to buy books and go to the movies...

Comment by Peter Lubin. Our scholarly friend Ephraim Blueprint, who rarely leaves his 4th-floor carrel in a large university library, has written to us on the subject of spring. "Well-apparelled April! April in her prime!... I had almost forgotten about April. Buds buddeth, grass groweth, sumer is icumen in! Reverdie, regreenment. Years...

The Talk of the Town Rehearsal by Susan Lardner. Talk story about a rehearsal for Theodore Bikel at the Maisonette, at the St. Regis-Sheraton Hotel. Mr. Hellerman is the arranger and conductor, he was once a member of a singing group called The Weavers...

Fiction Beliard by Sylvia Townsend Warner. In the fairy kingdom of Broceliande, is a highly renowned spring called Barenton which has a life of its own. At this spring, peasant women would go and seek the advice from a stately woman who was not of the world of Faery, for she was visible to mortals. Dando...

Letter from Washington by Richard H. Rovere. The mediating efforts in the Middle East by Henry Kissinger and his predecessor as Sec. of State, William Rogers, may in the end change nothing, but even so this country will be seen to have closer than any other to arranging a settlement. Yet it is beginning to look more...

Musical Events by David Hamilton.

Reflections REFLECTIONS STREETS ONCE REALLY SEEN OR SEEN IN DREAMS by George F. Kennan. REFLECTIONS about writer's return to Leningrad, U.S.S.R. The city has always had for him an inexhaustible historical eloquence. Describes the various sites of interest. To the writer it seems that a real & significant change has come over Leningrad in the past few years. The city is rediscovering its own...

The Talk of the Town Green Continued by Susan Sheehan. Talk story about the building once occupied by McGraw-Hill, publishers, from Oct. 1931 - June 1972. In 1931 the building was a new sea-green skyscraper, designed by Raymond Hood, on W. 42nd St., between Eighth & Ninth Aves. In 1972 McGraw-SHill moved to more spacious quarters in Rockefeller...

Poetry Guardians by W. S. Merwin. Fine rain drifts along mountains to the south of me...

Poetry For The Record by Roy Blount. A dreamlike leap...