Dr. Selman Waksman, Nobel Prize winner, and Elmer Davis, noted news commentator, were honored here yesterday with Tamiment awards for books which they wrote in the last year.
Dr. Waksman, discoverer of streptomycin, was honored for his autobiography, “My Life with the Microbes,” while Mr. Davis received his award for his volume “But We Were Born Free.” Alexander Kahn, manager of the Jewish Daily Forward, presided at the luncheon at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel where the awards were presented.
The Tamiment Institute, donor of the award, was founded in 1935 “to support the ideals of free culture, and to resist and expose totalitarianism in any and all of its manifestations.” Ben Josephson, director of the Institute, said: “Implicit in this credo is the concept that the freedom to create without conformity and to inquire without fear is of paramount importance in the continuing struggle against tyranny.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.