The Harvard Summer School will offer more than 135 courses, as well as a new series of special conferences, lectures, and extracurricular activities when it opens July 5. The courses will cover 29 fields of study.

The feature of this year's sessions of a series of three day public conferences on "broad topics of current interest," Professor William Y. Elliot, Director, announced last night.

Arehibald MacLeish, Boylston Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory, and will lead a discussion on "The Poetic Drama," and Professor Bertrand H. Bronson of the University of California will head one on "Folk Music and Ballads."

Richard N. Frye, Associate Director of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, will direct the conference on "Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey-an Islamic Renaissance?"

The regular courses will be conducted by a staff of 90, some 50 of whom are members of the University. The remainder come from other leading colleges in the United States and Europe, including Columbia, Corbell, M.I.T., Princeton, Rutgers, and the Universities of California, Chicago, London, and Michigan.

The summer school, oldest in the country, offers instruction in Education and Arts and Sciences. "Courses are organized in an effort to satisfy both those people studying for their own general interest and students needing extra credits," Elliott said.

The University's libraries, laboratories, and museums will be open to everyone registering for the scission. Students will also be able to use all athletic facilities, including the swimming pool, tennis courts, and boat houses. An afternoon lecture series, Yard Punches, dances, and tours to the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood are among extracurricular activities scheduled.

Professor Harold C. Schmidt of Stanford University will conduct this year's Summer School Chorus. Last year the Chorus sang in one of the Esplanade Concerts.

The Graduate Schools of Education will continue the program which it inaugurated last year of courses designed expressly for teachers. The program, intended to increase a teacher's knowledge of his own field, will be extended this year to cover a new field with a course on American Literature. The Social Sciences program will continue with lectures on Far Eastern History, and the Science program with discussions on "Recent Developments in Physical Science.