From the Publisher: Mar 12 1990

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Whenever the staffers of the World section are stumped by questions like "Whatever happened to Albania's would-be King Leka?" or "What do you call those high-collared dresses that Chinese women wear?" someone is eventually bound to say, "Well, Bruce would know."

Bruce Nelan, that is. In his 25 years of reporting around the globe for TIME, Nelan has amassed an encyclopedic store of lore, which makes him not only a writer of remarkable depth but also a thoroughly engaging lunch date. "You also should see him when Jeopardy! comes on," says reporter- researcher Sinting Lai. (King Leka, as Nelan can tell you, is in exile in South Africa, while the traditional Chinese dress is called a cheongsam.)

Nelan's postings in Washington, Hong Kong, Bonn, Moscow and Johannesburg prepared him well for his current position as a senior writer. In crafting the main story in this week's special section on the Soviet Empire, Nelan drew from his experiences in Moscow from 1978 to 1981. Leonid Brezhnev was in charge, and the reforms that Mikhail Gorbachev later wrought were unimaginable then. "I understand the stage on which the recent changes are occurring," says Nelan, "but often I am completely amazed by the script."

Brought up in Chicago, Nelan studied journalism at the University of Illinois, then received a Master of International Affairs from Columbia University. After three years as a TIME diplomatic correspondent in Washington, Nelan and his wife Rose, also a journalist, headed abroad. They have spent most of the years since overseas, along the way rearing two sons, Terence, 19, and Tony, 14.

Nelan was assigned last year to New York City, where he can now savor firsthand the astonished looks of his colleagues as he dispenses another bit of knowledge in the hallways. "We were talking the other day about etiquette," says World editor Jim Kelly, "when Bruce remarked that there is only one thing that you can remove from your mouth and set on your plate while dining with the Queen of England. Bird shot." That ought to merit at least a $500 question on Jeopardy!