October 25, 1984

It could have been mere coincidence, or perhaps it was inspired by a new moon. Whatever the reason, hundreds of the nation's leading intellectuals, writers and artists abandoned their books, canvases and word processors last night to flock to publication parties in Manhattan. If it couldn't have happened in Peoria, it was rare even for New York City. While it is not unusual to have two or even three receptions the same evening at the height of New York's fall publishing season, which runs from mid-September through December, those in the business could not remember a time when there were as many as eight, as there were last night - a night when even the most determined partygoer would have been hard put to make all the rounds. Conversations and Criticism One book-industry executive described it as ''the most diverse celebration of the creative mind in recent memory.''

One of every three students at City College is on academic probation, according to college officials, a rate believed to be one of the highest in the country. This fall, the college tightened its standards for probation as part of a continuing attempt to regain prestige lost during the open admissions era of the 1970's. As a result, college administrators say, 3,604 of the school's 10,740 undergraduates have received letters informing them that they are on probation. ''This is a fairly aggressive policy,'' said Alan Fiellin, dean of general education and guidance at the college, the oldest and best known of the 17 undergraduate units of the City University. ''We are reaching out early to warn students, and it does not mean that all of them are in danger of being immediately dismissed or even that all of them have bad academic records.''

Because of an editing error, an article yesterday on the Long Commission, which investigated the October 1983 terrorist bombing of Marine headquarters in Lebanon, misidentified the chairman. He was Adm. Robert L. J. Long.

The Government, reporting a moderate rise in consumer prices for September, today announced the size of the first automatic adjustment of the income tax for inflation. With the Consumer Price Index up four-tenths of 1 percent in September, the rise for the last 12 months was 4.2 percent. Consequently, in 1985 income tax exemptions, the standard deduction and tax brackets will all be increased by 4.1 percent - an adjustment called indexing. (The difference of one- tenth percentage point results from a technical requirement in the statutory formula.) The adjustment will mean a reduction in taxes for some people, compared with what they pay for 1984.

In his days on Wall Street, Donald T. Regan, the Treasury Secretary, learned a thing or two about selling new securities. Yesterday he showed he had not lost his touch. An offering of $500 million to $1 billion in new three-year 11-month notes designed especially for foreign buyers attracted almost $4 billion in bids. The new Treasury offering met with considerable skepticism when it was proposed last August, but the size of the bids yesterday should dispel most doubts. Last August, some international banking houses grumbled that the new issue failed to offer foreign investors the financial privacy they took for granted. Other critics argued that, to the contrary, the debt promised too much concealment from tax authorities. For his part, Mr. Regan, who headed Merrill Lynch & Company, the nation's largest securities firm, before he came to Washington, publicly defended the issue as fair to investors and workable for tax collectors.