Word: cerfs
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...RANDOM by Bennett Cerf; Random House; 306 pages...
Before he came along, publishing was a gentleman's profession, and books were sold with dignity and decorum, like vintage antiques or old-master drawings. But Bennett Cerf s ego was a volume in itself, and he hawked his wares as if he were conducting the 1812 Overture-with dash, brass and lots of exploding canons. "Everyone has a streak of pure, unadulterated ham," he proclaimed. "Many won't admit it. I revel...
Other publishers waited for authors. Cerf sought them out and flattered, charmed-and signed up-some of the biggest names in the literary world. Together with Partner Donald Klopfer, he turned Random House, which they founded in 1927, into a pantheon of stars: Eugene O'Neill, James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, William Faulkner, Sinclair Lewis, Isak Dinesen, Truman Capote, John O'Hara and W.H. Auden. Now, in this posthumous volume, Cerf tells what goes on behind the bookshelves. Using tapes of his interviews for Columbia's oral history program, along with his diaries and scrapbooks, his widow, Phyllis...
...always disapproved of his son's recklessness, predicted that by then John would be dead. But the brash young Irishman's prophesy turned out to be correct; he was 29 when the form for Who's Who arrived. Little had changed decades later, when O'Hara wrote to Bennett Cerf at Random House: "It's no secret that I am working to get the Nobel. I am constantly at work, not only quantitatively but also maintaining as high standards as are within my powers, and this has been going on for some time...
Engaged. Former New York City Mayor Robert F. Wagner, 64; and Phyllis Fraser Cerf, 59, editor, author (The Complete Family Fun Book) and widow of Random House Founder Bennett Cerf. The marriage will be his third, her second. Wagner is a political adviser to New York Governor Hugh Carey, and Cerf is preparing a political and governmental guide to New York as a fund-raising vehicle for Carey...