IN THE 31 years since TIME'S editors I picked their first Man of the Year (Charles Augustus Lindbergh), their selections have been as various as the world itself. In 1930 the choice fell on India's Mohandas Gandhi, then in a British jail, and in 1936 on Wallis Warfield Simpson, better known today as the Duchess of Windsor. Not infrequently, the Man of the Year has been a villain rather than a hero --Hitler in 1938, Stalin in 1939. But always he has met one criterion: who, during the year, did the most to change the news, for better or for worse.

Over the years since 1928, it has become a tradition for TIME'S readers to offer their own nominations for Man of the Year. In 1958 some 30,000 readers sent in their choices -- which ranged from Boris Pasternak to Van Cliburn to "the inventor of the hula hoop" (a nomination that is not quite as frivolous as it sounds, in view of that man's effect on the course of human motion throughout the world in 1958). TIME'S choice is not based on reader nominations, but by far the biggest number of readers -- a whopping 47.3% -- agreed with the editors that the Man of 1958 was France's Charles de Gaulle.

To TIME'S editors -- as to its readers -- De Gaulle is in a unique sense the Man of the Year. By Stalin's standards -- "How many divisions does the Pope have?" -- De Gaulle is by no means the world's greatest statesman. But to a degree unmatched by any other world figure, he gave the year's news the flavor of his own complex, often misunderstood personality.

Because De Gaulle's triumph was so personal, TIME'S cover story this week concentrates on telling in words what kind of man he is. In TIME'S cover portrait, French Artist Bernard Buffet captures visually the flavor of the De Gaulle personality. Painted last May, before De Gaulle had even returned to office, Buffet's picture was not commissioned by TIME'S editors with the Man of the Year cover in mind, but simply because their news sense told them that the time for another cover story on De Gaulle (he was on the May 26 cover) was sure to come.

Bernard Buffet, 30 (TIME, March 3, 1950 et seq.), ranks as a popular hero in France, is the country's outstanding young painter, is mobbed by adoring fans whenever he holds a show, has parlayed his talent into a chauffeur-driven Rolls Royce and an 18th century mansion outside Paris. Painter Buffet, who locked himself in his studio for two days to do this week's cover portrait, makes no claim to being a political expert. But in his own way, the artist has reached the same conclusions as TIME'S editors and readers reached about the Man of 1958. Says Buffet: "The shape of De Gaulle's face and his bone structure denote enormous strength of character and will power." And then he adds, as so many Frenchmen of all levels of political interest and disinterest: "I'm convinced he is what France needs."

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