On November 22, 1985, Eugene lonesco and RobertnNisbet were honored at an awards banquet in Chicago’snRitz-Carlton hotel as recipients of the third annual IngersollnPrizes. M. lonesco received The T.S. Eliot Award fornCreative Writing. Dr. Nisbet was presented with ThenRichard M. Weaver Award for Scholarly Letters. Inauguratednin 1983, The Ingersoll Prizes (each carrying an awardnof $15,000) are supported by The Ingersoll Foundation, thenphilanthropic division of The Ingersoll Milling MachinenCompany, and are administered by The Rockford Institute.nAddressing the approximately one hundred scholars, writers,nand community leaders in attendance at the awardsnbanquet were John Agresto, acting director of the NationalnEndowment for the Humanities; John Howard, president ofnboth The Ingersoll Foundation and The Rockford Institute;nand Thomas Fleming, editor of Chronicles of Culture andnexecutive secretary of The Ingersoll Prizes. Both of thisnyear’s Ingersoll laureates also spoke, and their acceptancenspeeches will be published as feature essays in the Februarynand March issues of Chronicles. ccnJoseph EpsLciu Jxft), editor of The AmericannScholar,fa& with Chronicles editor Thomas Flemingn(center) and this year’s Weaver Award recipient, RobertnNisbet.nRobert NisbetnWhen philosophers ponder the nature of community, theyninevitably turn to the writings of Robert Nisbet. Withnpioneering scholarship and penetrating analysis. ProfessornNisbet has explored the significance of family, neighborhood,nand community—the institutions that are essentialnto our common life. His assessment of the challenges ofnmodernity to these enduring patterns has defined many ofnthe leading questions for serious students of contemporarynsociety. Never afraid to defend an unpopular position, henhas helped many to regain an appreciation for those modelsnof social thought which transcend the statistical, the political,nand the ideological. His accomplishment helps tonsustain our hope for a humane social order in the comingncentury. ccn2BI CHRONICLES OF CULTUREnTHE INGERSOLL PRIZES 1985nnnJohn Howard presents The T.S. Eliot Award to Eugenenlonesco.nEugene lonesconEugene lonesco has emerged as one of the few strong voicesnfor human dignity in the modern theater. In his plays,npaintings, and memoirs, he has made an eloquent testimonialnto man’s capacity for resistance in a world increasinglynhostile to our highest aspirations. While others in thesendifficult times have given way to despair, lonesco hasncreated comedy out of chaos and serious drama out of thenabsurd predicament of modern life. An enemy to all thensterilizing and brutal powers of totalitarianism, he hasnshown us the heroism of ordinary men who refuse tonsubmit. For this defense of human spirit, he is owed a greatndebt of gratitude by the free peoples of the world and by allnwho would be free. ccnThe awards banquet began with welcoming remarks fromnDr. Howard, who spoke of the vision and character of thenlate Leopold Tyrmand, founding editor of Chronicles ofnCulture and first executive secretary of The IngersollnPrizes:nLike Richard Weaver and T.S. Eliot, Leopold Tyrmandnhad a keen sense of the timeless requirements of rationalnorder in human affairs and transcendent values in the life ofnthe human being, and, like them, he knew that neitherncould prevail without generous nourishment from literaturenand human scholarship. The ordering values which makenfreedom preferable to tyranny and which give worthiness tonindividual life must be revitalized for each generation bynthose most gifted in poetic imagination and in the analysisnof contemporary reality.nThis renewal of understanding and inspiration, however,nhas fallen out of favor in the circles which set the standardsnand fashions for literature and scholarship. . . . Thesenprizes were, therefore, established to acclaim those keenn