At Random: The Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf | Bennett Cerf

At Random: The Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf | Bennett Cerf | Cerf's Up!!!

books:

At Random: The Rem...

	At Random: The Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf Bennett Cerf Random House Trade Paperbacks, 2002 - 320 pages average customer review:based on 9 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

?I?ve got the name for our publishing operation. We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random. Let?s call it Random House.? So recounts Bennett Cerf in this wonderfully amusing memoir of the making of a great publishing house. An incomparable raconteur, possessed of an irrepressible wit and an abiding love of books and authors, Cerf brilliantly evokes the heady days of Random House?s first decades.

Part of the vanguard of young New York publishers who revolutionized the book business in the 1920s and ?30s, Cerf helped usher in publishing?s golden age. Cerf was a true personality, whose other pursuits (columnist, anthologist, author, lecturer, radio host, collector of jokes and anecdotes, perennial judge of the Miss America pageant, and panelist on What?s My Line?) helped shape his reputation as a man of boundless energy and enthusiasm and brought unprecedented attention to his company and to his authors. At once a rare behind-the-scenes account of book publishing and a fascinating portrait of four decades? worth of legendary authors, from James Joyce and William Faulkner to Ralph Ellison and Eudora Welty, At Random is a feast for bibliophiles and anyone who?s ever wondered what goes on inside a publishing house.

for more information click here

"Random" Recollections From A Publishing Giant

Bennett Cerf's legendary career had him founding, leading, then selling one of the world's pre-eminent publishing houses, writing best-selling anthology and humor collections, speaking live and appearing weekly on the "What's My Line?" quiz program. He assembled much of his oral history through transcribed interviews and journals for what would be his autobiography, which he planned to write before dying in 1971.

His family, most notably son Christopher, assembled "At Random" from Cerf's exhaustive life chronicles. His family focused it, according to their introduction, "primarily about publishing and (Cerf's) pre-eminent role in it."

The result is a fascinating story which assembles Cerf's life and career as businessman, newspaperman, TV celebrity and, finally, his role as husband, father, and friend (a lovingly remembered childhood, glimpses of his marriages and family, loving remembrances of friends and co-workers from George Gershwin to Moss Hart.)

Cerf knew and published some of the 20th century's most well-known and beloved authors. "At Random" teems with anecdotes and personal remembrances of James Joyce, D.H. Lawrence, Dorothy Parker, Sinclair Lewis (with some frank critique of his career), William Faulkner, and Ayn Rand. Cerf also crosses paths with legends like New York's Cardinal Spellman (who shares an unusual lunch date with author John O'Hara) Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, and General David Sarnoff who, at the book's conclusion, clashes with Cerf over a fraction in Random House's sale price to RCA.

"At Random" has much to teach about publishing, its machinations and the egos and careers of its stars, the authors. But you come away wanting to know Bennett Cerf better: his political liberalism, hot temper, love of celebrity and of language. He hints at each in his narrative, only leading you to wish other quotes and remembrances could have been included in an addendum to this lovingly compiled book.. (Excerpts from some of his still popular pun collections may have helped.)

"At Random" examines the life and legacy of a celebrity too rare amid an increasingly sordid and more coarse media landscape - an author and businessman who became a TV celebrity first, celebrating the brief period when books were as anticipated and celebrated as films and recorded music are today. It's essential for anyone appreciating 20th century classic literature and history, a love letter to its first star authors and, by proxy, the man who published them.

for more information click here

Cerf's Up!!!

When all of us who are now officially Older Than Dirt were growing up back in the 1960's, we usually aspired to be one of three particular men of achievement. For those of us with an athletic bent, Mickey Mantle was the man of choice. For those adventurers and dreamers among us, John Glenn appeared to offer the perfect life. Finally, for us bookish sorts, Bennett Cerf, publisher of Random House, panelist on "What's My Line," author of some of the worst puns ever written, and all around man about town, was who we aspired to be. This book is in essence his memoirs, told in oral history format just a short time before his unexpected death in 1971. He describes in detail why he was able to grow Random House at such a rapid rate: in his day, the book business was a stuffy one, and no publisher worth his salt would dream of lowering himself to seek out new authors. Bennett, being young, foolish, and very intelligent, would travel to wherever these authors lived and impress them with his obvious wit and sincerity. The sheer number and weight of authors whose service he was able to acquire through these means was absolutely staggering: Eugene O'Neill, James Joyce, Robinson Jeffers, Gertrude Stein, and Bill Styron, to name a very few. Through his liberal editing policies, he was even able to publish authors whose ideas he completely disagreed with, such as Ayn Rand. Some, like playwright Moss Hart, became lifelong friends. Although New Yorkers have long thought of their city as the center of the universe, Bennett's long and storied career made many believe it was true. The reader will enjoy his chatty, breezy style time and again, as a reminder that at one time, in the world of books and publishing, one man truly made a difference.

for more information click here

A Delightful Recollection

The beauty of this book is that you get to know Bennett Cerf as the scholarly, brillant, and excellent businessman who met the most amazing and well known writers of the 20th century. The gentle questioner on What's My Line was the powerhouse of Random House.

This is the book you keep if you want insights into the personalities of such greats as Sinclair Lewis, F Scott Fitzgerald, William Saroyan, James Joyce, William Faulkner, Dorothy Parker, and a hundred other writers.

This is the book you keep when you want to remember a time when, in business deals, your word was all that was needed and great writing meant having something intelligent to say.

for more information click here

Outstanding Comments of Legendary Publisher/ Author/ Etc.!!

From his early days at Columbia, starting out with the Liveright Publishers in the 1920's, and buying into the Modern Library Classics, this is without doubt the best look at publishing I've ever read! The amusing story of how a special copy of Ulysses came across the Atlantic, and into the hands of US Customs is worth the price of the book! Add to that, hilarious yarns, like meeting with Gerturde Stein & her Sidekick Alice, featuring the hilarious promotion of their book so it could "compete" with the hot new book FOREVER AMBOR ,and its even hotter author K. Windor makes for some real fun. Mr. Cerf even wrote a short comment in some of Ms. Stein's books admitting he could not always figure out what they were about. A trip to London to meet Bernard Shaw is also good for some laughs. His comments on many other "Literati", including Saroyan, Faulkner, O' Hara, Ayn Rand,Wittaker Chambers, etc. plus general comments on the state of the world are all top. In short, a must read for anyone of all ages, even if you don't care too much about writing and publishing!

for more information click here

A Debonair Gentleman Game Show Questioner.

When I was a young girl, one of my favorite television shows was 'What's My Line' where the game participants had to guess from various hints what the person was representing. Along with Dorothy Kilgallen, I enjoyed most the witty, debanoir Bennett Cerf. I tried in vain to be on the show as at that time, I had "four mothers" instead of forefathers. But that was off-limits back then. In 1955, his autobiography 'The Life Of the Party' portrayed a humorist along the vein of Mark Twain. He loved to solve puzzles. He was master at humorous anecdotes, always at random: as apparently was his sense of thought.

Here are a couple of examples from one of his "Bumper Crop" books"
The learned but unwordly head of the department devoted to the study of comparative religions at Harvard invariably asked the same question on every final exam: "Who, in chronological order, were the Kings of Israel?" Students came to count on this procedure as a sacred institution and prepared accordingly. Only once did he vary from this practice, asking instead: "Who were the major prophets and who were the minor prophets?" The class members were at a loss and all but one left the question unanswered. This sole survivor scribbled furiously and deposited his paper with the air of a conqueror. "Far be it from me to distinguish between these revered gentlemen, but it occurred to me that you might like to have a chronological list of the Kings of Israel."

Do you know why so many Hawaiian words sound and look alike to the uninitiated? There are only twelve letters in the Hawaiian alphabet. The vowels, (A, E, I, O, and U) and the consonants H, K, L, M, N, P, and W.

He was a clever man and an educated man. It's too bad he never received his well-deserved 'Star" in Hollywood, but he was an Easterner (no doubt), and it probably is reserved for the game show hosts. He could have been one, and a good one at that!

for more information click here

reviews: page 1, 2

products you might be interested in

recommendations

Even More Memorable Memoirs
Classic What's My Line?