Rising from its ashes, the Advocate phoenix has managed to get aloft, though it still has to learn to straighton up and fly right. While the poetry is consistently excellent, the four stories do not all show professional skill, but all provocatively give promise of better work. Lured by Dave Self's splendid cover and five tasteful sketches, the reader will be disappointed by the unimaginative makeup and by the promise of a second and maybe a third pointless article on the UN by Stephen Schwebel.

Unexpectedly the most workmanlike part of the magazine, the poonis are rich in restrained, suggestive imagery. Richard Wilbur's "Objects" is a related act of impressions, studded with vivid, sensuous imagery. In "Objects" and in his other two poems, Wilbur handles both rhyme and rhythm with subtlety and originality. "A Sermon," by John Ashbery, comments inclusively on a Bibical passage in terms of the frustration and spiritual blindness of modern society.

Delicately balancing his fantasy with realistic psychological probing, Harold Wendell Smith shown skill and imagination equally in "The Fireman's Hat," though the ending is somewhat unsatisfying. Where Smith succeeds in avoiding obviousness and pompous language in portraying a character, Alan Friedman's "All Truth Is a Lie" partly fails. Starting with an interesting and mature idea, 'Friedman has constructed a somewhat nebulous story in which the author's manipulations are all too evident. The writing is good, but the Virginia Woolf-ish musing on Life and the nature of Time, though well-adapted to the story, is overworked.

Of the two shorter stories, "The Vigil," by William A. Emerson, is neat and subdued, creating atmosphere in a small space. In "Kenneth," A. K. Lowis has satirized the slick magazine story by substituting grotesque animals for the even more grotesque creatures that inhabit the originals. The result is almost pointless, but delightful.

The criticism in the Advocate's first issue is restricted to two recent American novels. Robert Crichton's review of "Under the Volcano" is sharp and convincing; he understands the shortcomings of the book and knows how to write about them. Austryn Wainhouse, reviewing Steinbeck's latest, writes well, but is hampered rather than helped by the superfluous toels of the professional reviewer.

With an embryonic staff it is excusable, yet regrettable, that the first issue of the Advocate seems to be thrown together haphazardly. IIad the criticism been used to liven up the back pages of the book, and the bold black headlines been changed to something more fitting a literary magazine, the effect of the professional-looking drawings would have been increased greatly.

Where the Progressive failed in printing fiction, the Advocate has done no better in non-fiction. Schwebel's article has little new for the reader of any news magazine. There is plenty of room at Harvard for a purely literary and critical publication, and if the Advocate concentrates on meeting this need, it will be successful. The long-awaited first post-war issue fills a gap that has existed for a year, and on the whole the result is encouraging. Its writing stimulating and pleasant, the Advocate gives every promise of taking an important place as the voice of the finest of Harvard's literary talent.