From the Publisher

By Elizabeth P. Valk

There is something about Presidents and other indigenous people that fascinates William Coupon. The photographer for our Man of the Year cover has spent years traveling the globe capturing images of world leaders, celebrities and members of vanishing primitive tribes. His style is well suited to such serious subject matter -- intimate pictures using textured backgrounds that give his work a painterly quality reminiscent of Rembrandt's emotional canvases of the kings and prophets of the Bible. "The format is respectful," says Coupon. "Therefore what you have is a more revealing portrait of a person."

Coupon's ability to work fast was ideal for the harried schedule of President-elect Bill Clinton. The photo session immediately followed the interview with Clinton by managing editor Henry Muller, deputy M.E. John F. Stacks, chief political correspondent Michael Kramer and White House correspondent Margaret Carlson. After shooting six rolls of film in seven minutes, William put down his camera and told Clinton, "I think I got it." Unaccustomed to such a fast-working photographer, the stunned President-elect responded, "You are the first photographer I didn't stop first."

The Man of the Year cover stories were edited by senior editor Thomas Sancton, who only recently realized he has been following the career of Bill Clinton for more than two decades. A graduate of Harvard, Sancton headed off to Oxford as a Rhodes scholar in 1971, sailing to England three years after Clinton made the same journey. After finishing his doctorate, Sancton joined TIME's World section in New York City, then headed to Paris as a correspondent in 1982. Four years later, Sancton returned to New York, where he began editing TIME International.

During the campaign this past fall, Sancton headed our Nation section as it followed the rise of Arkansas' saxophone-playing Governor. Like Clinton, Sancton has a deep love of music, having studied the clarinet in his native New Orleans with the great George Lewis. "I find it amusing that he is a fellow Southern Rhodes scholar who plays a reed instrument," he says. Sancton still finds time to cut records and jam with the likes of Woody Allen and Doc Cheatham. This week Tom once again departs for the City of Light in order to take over as Paris bureau chief. "Having worked for TIME on both sides of the Atlantic, I find there's little real difference between foreign and domestic news -- a good story is a good story, and Europe will be full of them." We wish him a good tour.