From Tne Publisher

By Louis A. Weil III

For most reporters, no assignment is more fascinating than covering the White House. But for TIME Washington contributing editor Hugh Sidey, who has chronicled the thoughts of U.S. Presidents in his column "The Presidency" and has covered every national election since 1960, an equally exciting dateline is Small Town America. Beginning this week, Sidey will rove more often through his favorite byways. In addition to his White House column, he will contribute dispatches from around the country under the rubric "Hugh Sidey's America." Says he: "I will go exploring in the open spaces that lie between the great urban centers, trying to figure out what's changing out there, what moves those special people who cling to the land through economic and natural hardship."

A native of Greenfield, Iowa, Sidey grew up working on the family newspaper, the Adair County Free Press, founded by his great-grandfather in 1889. He studied engineering at Iowa State College but soon returned to journalism. For the past 35 years, he has practiced his art, first for LIFE magazine, then, since 1958, for TIME. Says senior editor Thomas Sancton: "Hugh Sidey is TIME's gift to journalism. When I was in college, I wrote him a fan letter and was thrilled to get a handwritten reply. I never dreamed I'd be editing his copy one day. But then, you don't do much to Sidey's copy."

Sidey starts this week with a look at adaptation and survival in the harsh beauty of the Great Plains region. The idea for the story came to him during a visit to Miles City, Mont., this summer, when he decided to seek out the lonely spot where, in 1886, the Smithsonian's William Hornaday slaughtered 25 bison for an exhibit at Washington's National Museum of Natural History. Recalls Sidey: "I found the site and stood filled with a sense of being in a primeval time and place. I understood what Montanans mean when they speak of the Big Sky country, the immensity and timelessness of it."

In coming months, Sidey will be dodging down back roads looking for other stories. Says he: "There is no place in this nation you can travel without learning something fascinating. I find romance and adventure wherever I go."