Word: cerfs
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...then, Cerf is called in to iron things out when editor-writer relations get difficult. He cajoled Jerome Weidman into rewriting a badly tooled draft of his forthcoming book, Other People's Money. Cerf also thought up the title for the book, as he did for Mac Hyman's No Time for Sergeants, William Brinkley's Don't Go Near the Wa ter, and Nancy Mitford's Love in a Cold Climate...
...Love. When he is not playing adman, businessman, referee and editor, Cerf devotes a good part of his time to keeping his authors happy. Fortunately, he enjoys it, even when his high-strung writers curl into knots. He likes to tell about the time that Sinclair Lewis spent a night at the Cerf apartment. "He had dinner," Cerf recalls, "and we were all sitting at the table. Then Bill Faulkner called up and said he was in town. I told Lewis and asked him, could Bill come over? Lewis said, 'Certainly not. This is my night!' Then...
...Today, Cerf puts much effort into the care and feeding of his favorite author, John O'Hara. Whenever O'Hara telephones him from his Princeton, N.J., home and says, "Hello, Cerfie," Bennett knows that he has some kind of complaint. Often O'Hara calls only to ask Cerf to get him a hotel room. Cerf always complies, and also makes certain that the Random House parking lot will save a spot for O'Hara's Rolls-Royce. O'Hara is equally fond of Cerf. "He just needs a lot of love," says he. Besides...
...Oppernockety. From all indications, Cerf runs a happy shop as well as a contented stable. "They're all prima donnas," he chortles. "We're a firm of prima donnas!" When he tells a visitor that Jason Epstein is "the cross I have to bear," Epstein retorts, "and Bennett is the bear I have to cross." Corporation Secretary Charles A. Wimpfheimer, 38, gets in on the fun now and then. He once installed a parking meter in Cerf's private washroom, probably because Cerf himself started the local bathroom jokes by placing two copies of Lindbergh...
...Most of Cerf's puns and gags are better than bathroom humor-but not much. He tells about the fellow named Kissinger who had his name changed so many times that soon all his friends were asking "I wonder who's Kissinger now?" And about the piano tuner named Oppernockety, who never returns to fix a bad job because Oppernockety only tunes once. Or the Indian chief who was delighted to learn that his two youngsters had been invited to join the yacht club; the chief had always wanted to see his red sons in the sail...