Book Review
Title: At Random
Author: Bennett Cerf
Publisher: Random House
Date: March 5, 2002 (origin. 1977)
ISBN: 978-0375759765
Bennett Cerf founded Random House in 1927. It was privately held until going public in 1959. Over the next couple of years Random House acquired Alfred A. Knopf and Pantheon Books, then Ballantine Books in 1973.
Over the years Random House published (and Cerf was acquainted with) many of the time’s literary stars. He worked with William Faulkner, Eugene O’Neill, Gertrude Stein, André Malraux, Sinclair Lewis, James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel), US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR), and many others.
Cerf was also friends from a young age with others who started other publishing houses. For example, two of his friends in college include Richard Simon and Max Schuster, who later formed the publishing house Simon and Schuster. His close friend Harold Ross founded the New Yorker magazine. Ross introduced Cerf to Ginger Rogers’ cousin Phyllis Fraser, who Cerf soon married. Bennett and Phyllis were married in New York City Hall, officiated by Mayor La Guardia (after whom the airport is named). Cerf later became a good friend of Alfred A. Knopf and other publishers, all of whom were concentrated in New York City and saw each other regularly.
Cerf himself wrote many best-sellers, wrote popular columns, had radio shows and appeared as a regular on the TV show What’s My Line for about ten years. He had an eventful life, right at home in the stratosphere of the literary world, the NYC hub of publishing greats.
Cerf died in 1971. He had written this book, but had not published it yet. It was published posthumously in 1977. The book is well written, as expected, given Cerf’s writing talent, and also given that the best editors in the world worked on it.
This book serves as both autobiography of Cerf and history of Random House and of twentieth-century publishing in general. The storyline merges the histories of Cerf and Random House seamlessly with many delightful encounters and personal experiences. There were endless memorable episodes throughout Cerf’s exciting life at the center of New York City’s brightest lights. From the giants of publishing to the wackiest oddball authors, Cerf was at home among them all, and shares it with us. Anyone interested in twentieth-century history, biography, book publishing as it used to be, or just a compelling story with an amazing cast of characters, this book is for you.