Free Republic

Excerpt - Rupert Murdoch's courtship of the Bancroft family appears to have triumphed, with enough shares pledged to make News Corp. the owner of the newspaper whose Web site you are now reading. Readers are naturally asking how this will change the journalism we practice. Our sincere answer is that we intend to stand for the same principles and standards we have for more than a hundred years. The Bancrofts have been wonderful stewards of The Wall Street Journal for a century, and we are grateful for the support they have provided for our brand of independent journalism. They are...

NEW YORK (AP) -- When the Bancroft family meets Monday to consider Rupert Murdoch's $5 billion bid for Wall Street Journal publisher Dow Jones & Co., relatively few of them will actually be named Bancroft. There will be a Hill, a Steele, the family's lead trustee, who is named Elefante, and yes, at least one Bancroft, first name Christopher. Other family members have last names that include Cox, Robes and MacElree. And if their names are hard to keep track of, it's been just as hard trying to predict the outcome of their vote about Dow Jones. They initially rejected...

NEW YORK - Anne Bancroft, who won the 1962 best actress Oscar as the teacher of a young Helen Keller in "The Miracle Worker" but achieved greater fame as the seductive Mrs. Robinson in "The Graduate," has died. She was 73. She died of uterine cancer on Monday at Mount Sinai Hospital, John Barlow, a spokesman for her husband, Mel Brooks, said Tuesday. Bancroft was awarded the Tony for creating the role on Broadway of poor-sighted Annie Sullivan, the teacher of the deaf and blind Keller. She repeated her portrayal in the film version. Yet despite her Academy Award and...

Edward Warburton Bancroft, Born October 19, 1923, passed away today at 18:20 in a Convalescent home in Windsor Locks Connecticut.

QUESTION: Why is the King James Bible called the "Authorized Version"? How did King James Authorize it?

Columbia Rescinds History Prize for Book By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK (AP) -- Severe doubts about a book on guns in the United States has led Columbia University to rescind the prestigious Bancroft Prize for history. ``Arming America,'' by Michael Bellesiles, had received the award in 2001. In a statement released Friday, Columbia said that the school's trustees had concluded ``his book had not and does not meet the standards ... established for the Bancroft Prize.'' Columbia has asked Bellesiles to return the prize money, $4,000. It was the first time in the 54-year history of the Bancroft award...