Activities of the Friends
 

Winter Reception. A reception in the Rare Book and Manuscript
Library on Wednesday afternoon, March 1, opened the exhibition,
"The Fugitive Kind: The Theater of Tennessee Williams." Manu¬
scripts for the playwright's first four major plays—Battle of Angels,
The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, and Summer and
Smoke—were exhibited along with 130 other manuscripts, play-
scripts, letters, portraits, photographs, set designs, and press books,
that span Williams's literary career as playwright, poet, writer of
fiction, and memoirist. Many ofthe rarities shown were presented
by Random House, Mr. and Mrs. Robert L. Wilbur, The Archons
of Colophon, and Jack Harris Samuels; and several distinguished
items were loaned by Carter Burden from his extensive collection.
The exhibition will remain on view in the Kempner Exhibition
Room through July 26.

Bancroft Awards Dinner. The Rotunda in Low Memorial Library
was the setting for the annual Bancroft Awards Dinner, held on
Wednesday evening, April 5, and presided over by Frank S. Stree¬
ter, the new Chairman of the Friends. University Provost Robert
Goldberger announced the winners ofthe 1989 awards for distin¬
guished books in American history and diplomacy published in
1988: Eric Foner for Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolu¬
tion, 1863-1877, published by Harper & Row; and Edmund S.
Morgan for Inventing the People: The Rise of Popular Sovereignty in
England and America, published by WW. Norton & Company. An
Award of $4,000, from funds provided by the Edgar A. and
Frederic Bancroft Foundation, was presented to the author of each
book by the Provost, and Mr. Streeter presented citations to the
publishers.

Future Meetings. The fall exhibition reception will be held on
Wednesday afternoon, December 6; the winter exhibition recep¬
tion will be held on March 7, 1990; and the Bancroft Awards Din¬
ner is scheduled for April 4, 1990.
 

45