WHEN Correspondent Bonnie Angela first met Lady Bird Johnson some 13 years ago, Angelo was a reporter for a Long Island news paper, Lady Bird the wife of a U.S. Senator aspiring to the presidency. Mrs. Johnson eventually moved to the White House, Angelo to TIME'S Washington news bureau, and their contact with each other continued. Last month Angelo and Lady Bird were together again as the former First Lady took time from a hectic schedule to reflect upon the problems of widowhood. Her thoughts appear this week in a special story in our Nation section.

Angelo flew to Austin, Texas, and visited Lady Bird at her office in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Memorial Library and on the L.B.J. Ranch. "It seemed only right that much of our time in Texas was spent on the move," says Angelo. "In her White House years I had traveled almost 100,000 miles covering Lady Bird in splendid pal aces and even more splendid wildernesses. This time the questions I had to ask were deeply personal, but she talked as perceptively as always, with a poetic turn of phrase, unabashed candor and an unquelled sense of joy. She is a truly remarkable woman."

This week, after an absence of nearly five months, TIME'S sister magazine LIFE returns to the newsstands in a new form. The occasion is a LIFE report titled "The Spirit of Israel," a special edition to mark the 25th anniversary of that country's birth. Ever since LIFE suspended publication last December, says LIFE Publisher Garry Valk, "we have been searching for ways in which LIFE'S pictorial journalism could continue to make a significant contribution to people's understanding of events and ideas."

The special edition is in the traditional large LIFE size; it is 92 pages long and features more than 140 color photographs and 20,000 words of text. It depicts the history of Israel from its early days as an in hospitable stretch of sand on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean to its growth into one of the wealthiest, most militarily powerful nations in the Middle East. The issue examines the Israeli people and their lifestyles, their heritage and their hopes for the future. Assembled by a score of former LIFE staff members, it contains no advertising and sells for $ 1 .50. It is the first of many single-subject issues that LIFE hopes to publish in the future. For our part, we are happy to welcome back the long-familiar red and white logo.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.