Ann Landers -- the real one -- wants to make one thing perfectly clear: she is not dead.

"Some people think I've died and someone else took over for me,'' the famed American advice columnist told The Royal Gazette last week.

"They tell me I can't be Ann Landers because they started reading me in high school and now they're grandfathers. But it is me. I've been doing this for 40 years. Can you believe it?'' Looking understatedly chic in a black polka-dot dress and pearl choker, the diminutive Chicago Tribune writer was musing on her long career in journalism from the sitting room of Chelston, the official Bermuda residence of US Consul General Mr. Bob Farmer.

Both long-time Democrats -- the American representative on the Island raised some $60 million for the campaign that elected US President Bill Clinton in 1992 -- Ms Landers was Mr. Farmer's guest over the New Year's holiday.

"I recognise I have a responsibility -- a heavy responsibility,'' she said of the column that is syndicated worldwide and has made her a household name.

"It makes me work harder. People depend on me.'' Born Eppie Lederer in 1918, Ms Landers has been shouldering those responsibilities since she won a 1955 Chicago Sun-Times contest to replace the original Ann Landers, who, ironically, had died.

The second and infinitely more famous Ms Landers defected to the rival Tribune after Australian-born newspaper magnate Mr. Rupert Murdoch bought the Sun-Times in 1987.

"I had never written professionally before,'' Ms Landers said of her pre-column days as a midwestern housewife. "But they had a legal question on the (contest) form and I called up William O. Douglas of the Supreme Court to get an answer. No one else did that, and that's what impressed them about me.'' She added: "I still have no qualms about calling the top people to get the information I need.'' It is that type of backing, Ms Landers said, that has made her such a popular authority on everything from legal and medical conundrums to domestic and personal issues. On the subject of alcoholism alone, for example, Ms Landers can direct her readers to support and rehabilitation services in some 1,200 cities.

"It's very helpful and practically free,'' she said of the counsel she provides. "It costs no more than the price of a postage stamp.'' Ms Landers, of course, hardly needs to advertise. Her column -- which is read from Toronto to Tokyo, Hackensack to Hong Kong, attracts letters from thousands of readers a year.

And although she admits to editing the letters, the columnist, who is aided by a staff of seven, said she does not tamper with the tone.

"Most (submissions) have to be shortened,'' she explained. "But I don't alter the language. I try to to keep the writer's voice intact.'' And why have thousands of complete strangers put such trust in her opinion for so many years? In addition to having "established'' herself as a trustworthy source of information, Ms Landers feels that her success is due in large part to her adaptability.

"One thing I have heard is that I've kept up with the times,'' she said.

"It's a different world now than it was 40 years ago. I just go with the flow.'' Consequently, the notion of retirement is not one that seems to preoccupy Ms Landers.

Said the columnist of her work: "You call it a job, but I wouldn't call it that. I would say it's a calling.'' DEAR ANN...Famed American advice columnist Ms Ann Landers spent the New Year's holiday in Bermuda. She was seen dancing up a storm at the Southampton Princess Hotel on New Year's Eve.