Activities of the Friends

Winter Reception. Nearly two hundred Friends of the Library
and their guests attended the reception in the Rare Book and Man¬
uscript Library to open the exhibition, "A Publisher Collects:
The Library of Bennett Cerf." On view were inscribed first edit¬
ions, press books, and autograph letters and manuscripts collected
byBennettCerf since the 1920s and donated in 1983 by his widow,
Mrs. Phyllis Cerf AA'agner.

Bancroft Awards Dinner. Prizes for distinguished works in Amer¬
ican history and diplomacy were awarded at the annual Bancroft
dinner, held in the Rotunda of Low lA'Iemorial Library on Thurs¬
day evening, April 4, with Gordon N. Ray presiding. President
Michael I. Sovern announced the winners of the 1985 awards for
books published in 1984: Suzanne Lebsock, The Free Women of
Petersburg: Status and Culture in a Southern Town, 1^8^-1860,
W.W. Norton & Company; and Kenneth Silverman, The Life and
Times of Cotton Mather, Harper & Row Publishers, Inc. The
President presented to the author of each book a $4,000 award
from funds provided by the Edgar A. and Frederic Bancroft
Foundation; Dr. Ray presented citations to the publishers.

Future Meetings. The Fall meeting, to open the exhibition "The
House of Books that A'larguerite and Louis Cohn Built," will be
held on December 5. The reception opening the winter exhibition
will be held on iAIarch 6, 1986, and the Bancroft Awards dinner
is scheduled for April 3, 1986.
 

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