Dear Friends of the George Santayana Society,

Angus Kerr-Lawson and the prize in his honor

The Angus Kerr-Lawson Prize is offered in tribute to Kerr-Lawson’s outstanding contributions to Santayana scholarship both as longtime editor of Overheard in Seville and as the author of many articles that appeared in our Bulletin and in other publications. Kerr-Lawson was a co-founder of the George Santayana Society. The prize is available to a scholar not more than five years out of graduate school for an essay engaging or rooted in the thought of George Santayana. We encourage you to promote the Angus Kerr-Lawson Prize among graduate students and junior faculty members. Any aspect of Santayana’s thinking may be addressed by authors, including essays that relate his thinking to other figures in the American tradition (and beyond) and to contemporary social, cultural and philosophic concerns. Relevant themes include materialism and naturalism, realism and Platonism, metaphysics and morals, and issues connected to American culture and intellectual history. The winner will receive $300 and be invited to present the winning paper at the Society’s annual Eastern APA meeting in early January. The winning essay will be published in the edition of Overheard in Seville that follows that meeting. This year the winner will be notified in September, 2017. Authors should prepare submissions for blind review (no exposing references to the author within the composition) and send electronically in Word, ODT, or PDF format to: rmrubin@acm.org. The subject line of the email should read: *Kerr-Lawson Prize Submission, [author’s name]*. The deadline for submissions is May 21, 2017.

Shirley Marie Lachs

The first letter in this series, which described the annual meeting, reported that John Lachs was unable to participate in his planned joint session with Herman Saatkamp. Part of the reason is that Shirley Lachs, his wife of nearly five decades and longtime collaborator, died last fall. We wish Professor Lachs well in his time of loss.

Richard M Rubin
President, George Santayana Society