Table of Contents

COVER: A beefy huddle brightens football's season and Chicago's winter 46

From Walter Payton to William Perry, modern Bears worthy of George Halas and Bronko Nagurski are off to New Orleans for their first Super Bowl. The enchanted opponent, New England's surprising Patriots, debuts too, under Raymond Berry. From I to XIX, each of the past games is revisited by one thoughtful man. See SPORT.

NATION: Gorbachev offers a sweeping proposal to eliminate nuclear arms 18

A startled Reagan Administration studies the Soviets' plan for reaching a nuclear-free utopia by 2000 and wonders if the scheme is a genuine breakthrough or simply a propaganda ploy. Kansas Republican Bob Dole, the acerbic Senate Majority Leader, braces for a run at the presidency. America honors the birthday of slain Civil Rights Leader Martin Luther King Jr. with a national holiday.

BOOKS: In New York City, the 48th PEN Congress generates heat and light 74

Norman Mailer defends his invitation of Secretary of State George Shultz as E.L. Doctorow and Nadine Gordimer counterattack. Germany's Guenter Grass squares off against Nobel Laureate Saul Bellow, and some 800 delegates from more than 40 countries try to imagine "The Imagination of the State."

28 World

Peru's young President takes on the banks. Marxist vs. Marxist in South Yemen. More guns than butter in Gaddafi's Libya.

36 Economy & Business

TIME's European economists predict continued growth in 1986. Drugs on the job. Cosmic shootouts on Planet Photon.

58 Space

Journalists vie for a shuttle berth as a Florida Congressman finally comes down and a New Hampshire teacher prepares to go up.

59 Medicine

Extended-wear contact lenses, worn by millions of Americans, may cause corneal damage. Warnings about an overdone operation.

64 Cinema

Nick Nolte brings redemption to the rich in Down and Out in Beverly Hills. Pirandello comes richly to the screen in Kaos.

67 Art

A show of the early works of Lyonel Feininger reveals his roots as an illustrator and his youthful fixation on the 19th century.

70 Computers

New Hampshire Governor John Sununu, a devoted computer buff, runs the Granite State with machines that are state of the art.

80 Essay

The death of Joseph Kraft raises thoughts on what is ephemeral and what is lasting in a newspaper column. What does a column do?

7 Letters 61 Press 63 People 66 Show Business 78 Theater 78 Milestones

COVER: Photograph by Ken Regan--Camera 5