Activities of the Friends
Meetings

Bancroft Awards Dinner. On W'ednesday, April 22, approxi¬
mately 200 members of our organization and their guests met for
the culminating event of the academic year—the Bancroft Awards
Dinner which was held in the Men's Faculty Club. Mr. August
Heckscher, past Chairman of our association, presided in place of
Mr. Barrett who was unable to be present.

During the program. President Kirk announced the winners of
the prizes for the two books judged by the Bancroft Prize Jury to
be the best published in the field of American history during 1958:
The Americans: The Colonial Experience, by Daniel J. Boorstin,
and Henry Adams: The Middle Years, by Ernest Samuels. He
presented a $3,000 check to each of the authors, who responded
with short addresses. Mr. Heckscher presented certificates to iMr.
Jess Stein, Editor of Random House, and to Mr. Thomas J. Wil¬
son, Director of Belknap Press of Harvard Univensity, the pub¬
lishers, respectively, of the two award-winning books. The
principal speaker for the occasion was Dr. Harold C. Syrett, Pro¬
fessor of History at Columbia University and Executive Director
of the Hamilton Papers Project, who spoke with high good humor
about some of the problems and incongruities involved in such a
major editorial project.

As Mr. Heckscher said at the conclusion of the program, this
seemed to be one of the most richly enjoyed of the series of award
dinners. Afrs. Albert iVI. Baer of the Friends' Council \\'as Chair¬
man of the Committee which made the arrangements.
 

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