A Letter From the Publisher

By John A. Meyers

This week's cover story on Filmmaker Steven Spielberg is TIME's third cover- length look at the Hollywood superczar and his work. But it is the first appearance of Spielberg himself on the cover. For a 1975 account of the making of Jaws, his first megahit, the cover honors went to Bruce, the mechanical great white shark. A second, planned cover, in 1982, heralding E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Poltergeist, was bumped at the last minute when British troops landed on the Falkland Islands, though a long story ran inside. In the three years since E.T., notes Senior Writer Richard Corliss, who wrote both this week's cover story and the 1982 piece, Spielberg has become even more successful and influential. "He is Hollywood's most powerful mini- mogul," says Corliss. "With the release of The Goonies and Back to the Future, we thought it the right time to catch up with this boy whirlwind and see where he was going. It turns out to be where he came from: back to his childhood."

Reporting on Spielberg's life and work is indeed a process of re-entering the $ world of youth, says Show Business Correspondent Denise Worrell. "Once Steven's your friend, you're one of the goonies. I heard him say to someone, 'Good friends like us will stick like tar.' That's Steven, he believes in blood brothers. He makes you think of secret childhood rites and solemn oaths of friendship." Worrell spent long hours on the set to get an inside look at Spielberg's new film The Color Purple, and his upcoming TV series Amazing Stories. She interviewed him over a period of two weeks, and talked with dozens of his friends and associates. She also went to Coldwater Canyon to visit with Actress Amy Irving, the mother of Spielberg's newborn son Max Samuel, three days before the baby was due.

TIME Photographer David Hume Kennerly took the cover picture for this issue and many of the other photos for the story (including an exclusive one of Baby Max and his proud parents). Says he: "I don't recall dealing with anybody, in government and politics or in Hollywood, who was as cooperative as Spielberg. He is a very private person who doesn't normally allow the press into his life. And he was extremely busy. But he constantly took time out for us."

The assignment was an especially intriguing one for Kennerly, who had just completed a nine-month fellowship in film directing at Los Angeles' American Film Institute. "When Spielberg invited me to shoot on the set of The Color Purple," says Kennerly, "I watched very carefully how he went about his directing. It was the best possible graduation present."