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Nothing Random: Bennett Cerf and the Publishing House He Built
The story of the legendary Random House founder, whose seemingly charmed life at the apogee of the American Century afforded him a front-row seat to literary and cultural history in the making
“A stunning achievement . . . a sweeping intellectual history with a stunning cast of characters that reveals the inner struggles of a great publishing house.”—Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
At midcentury, everyone knew Bennett witty, beloved, middle-aged panelist on What’s My Line? whom TV brought into America’s homes each week. But they didn’t know that the handsome, driven, paradoxical young man of the 1920s had vowed to become a great publisher and, a decade later, was. By then, he’d signed Eugene O’Neill, Gertrude Stein, and William Faulkner, and had fought the landmark censorship case that gave Americans the freedom to read James Joyce’s Ulysses.
With his best friend and lifelong business partner Donald Klopfer, and other young Jewish entrepreneurs like the Knopfs and Simon & Schuster, Cerf remade the book what was published, and how. In 1925, he and Klopfer bought the Modern Library and turned it into an institution, then founded Random House, which eventually became a home to Truman Capote, Ralph Ellison, Ayn Rand, Dr. Seuss, Toni Morrison, James Michener, and many more.
Even before TV, Cerf was a bestselling author and columnist as well as publisher; the show super-charged his celebrity, bringing fame—but also criticism. A brilliant social networker and major influencer before such terms existed, he connected books to Broadway, TV, Hollywood, and politics. A fervent democratizer, he published “high,” “low,” and wide, and from the Roaring Twenties to the Swinging Sixties collected an incredible array of friends, from George Gershwin to Frank Sinatra, having a fabulous time along the way.
Using interviews with more than two hundred individuals, deeply researched archival material, and letters from private collections not previously available, this book brings Bennett Cerf to vibrant life, drawing book lovers into his world, finally laying open the page on a quintessential American original.
“A stunning achievement . . . a sweeping intellectual history with a stunning cast of characters that reveals the inner struggles of a great publishing house.”—Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of American The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
At midcentury, everyone knew Bennett witty, beloved, middle-aged panelist on What’s My Line? whom TV brought into America’s homes each week. But they didn’t know that the handsome, driven, paradoxical young man of the 1920s had vowed to become a great publisher and, a decade later, was. By then, he’d signed Eugene O’Neill, Gertrude Stein, and William Faulkner, and had fought the landmark censorship case that gave Americans the freedom to read James Joyce’s Ulysses.
With his best friend and lifelong business partner Donald Klopfer, and other young Jewish entrepreneurs like the Knopfs and Simon & Schuster, Cerf remade the book what was published, and how. In 1925, he and Klopfer bought the Modern Library and turned it into an institution, then founded Random House, which eventually became a home to Truman Capote, Ralph Ellison, Ayn Rand, Dr. Seuss, Toni Morrison, James Michener, and many more.
Even before TV, Cerf was a bestselling author and columnist as well as publisher; the show super-charged his celebrity, bringing fame—but also criticism. A brilliant social networker and major influencer before such terms existed, he connected books to Broadway, TV, Hollywood, and politics. A fervent democratizer, he published “high,” “low,” and wide, and from the Roaring Twenties to the Swinging Sixties collected an incredible array of friends, from George Gershwin to Frank Sinatra, having a fabulous time along the way.
Using interviews with more than two hundred individuals, deeply researched archival material, and letters from private collections not previously available, this book brings Bennett Cerf to vibrant life, drawing book lovers into his world, finally laying open the page on a quintessential American original.
2019 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2026
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January 14, 2026
Why write a book about a man few people know today, by digging through his voluminous archive? Because it was there.
Before reading this book, I read some interviews with author Gayle Feldman, in which she described discovering that Random House and Bennett Cerf each had a vast, untapped cache of papers. Even though she herself knew little about Cerf, she figured someone ought to do something with all of that source material. So she spent the last quarter century turning it - and her own extensive research - into what became this book.
The very audacity of putting out a 1,072-page, encyclopedic doorstop of a biography about someone whose ephemeral fame faded more than half a century ago was actually what piqued my curiosity about this book. A 300-pager, I might not have bothered with. But the heft of this book suggested this must be a life story worth telling.
In truth, Cerf seemed not quite complex and fascinating enough to merit all 1,000+ pages on his own. But his biography here is intertwined with a biography of Random House itself, with multiple mini-biographies along the way of the many authors he worked with and came to befriend - everyone from William Faulkner, to Gertrude Stein, to Truman Capote, to James Michener, to Ayn Rand, to Dr. Seuss - all of whom had their own compelling, complicated and sometimes tragic stories.
The story of Bennett Cerf, then, is really a larger story about the business he founded and the American book publishing business as a whole. He was good friends with Alfred Knopf, and college friends with Dick Simon and Max Schuster, all of whose names readers will recognize as having started their own publishing firms. Cerf got his start in the industry by republishing classics and works by foreign authors at a time when such books were harder to find. That led to his acquisition of the Modern Library, which led to the founding of Random House, which led Cerf to become as big in the publishing business as his contemporaries.
Much of the book delves into what made Cerf and Random House stand out. He was always searching for up-and-comers to sign, he was heavily invested in the care and feeding of his authors, he famously championed a controversial battle to publish Ulysses and overturn its ban on obscenity grounds, and he tapped into emerging publishing trends including the booming popularity of paperbacks, the sale of books in nontraditional public places beyond the bookstore, and the use of popular fiction as source material for Hollywood, as Cerf often negotiated film rights for books he published.
Not content to be a behind-the-scenes player, though, Cerf sought to be recognized in his own right. He began writing columns for the Saturday Review of Literature, which led to emceeing a book-related radio show, which led to writing humor columns, which led to writing books of his own compiling jokes and puns, which led to his invitation to become a panelist on TV's What’s My Line?, which turned into a 17-year gig and firmly established him as a “personality.”
Feldman traces these ambitions back to his time working at his college newspaper, which served him well on multiple fronts - it taught him “how to write amusingly and fast for publication," while "honing his innate ability to schmooze, charm, and make the right connections.”
This dichotomy between the serious and the silly, the highbrow and lowbrow, is an ongoing theme in the book. To those who knew him from TV, he came across as classy but accessible, witty without being a comedian, intelligent without being an intellectual. To many in the literary community, though, compiling joke books and appearing regularly on a TV game show made him seem like an unserious lightweight. Cerf shrugged off any criticisms, his usual retort being, “what can I say, I’m a ham,” and defending What’s My Line? as a simple pastime that did no harm. Besides, compared to the game shows of today, What’s My Line? was relatively dignified and erudite, so he wasn’t exactly debasing himself just by being on TV.
Since anyone who remembers him at all today, knows him from reruns of What’s My Line?, it was somewhat disappointing that there’s not more about the show in the book, considering it accounted for a good 17 years of his life. One chapter is devoted to the show (with at least one minor incorrect detail, about Johnny Olson announcing during Cerf's first appearance, when Olson didn’t join the show until many years later), followed by some fleeting references to the show here and there, but not much.
The most interesting anecdote about What’s My Line? is how Cerf “really wanted to win, and worked at it,” Feldman writes. In order to suss out who that Sunday’s celebrity “mystery guest” might be, “he’d sit in his office on a Friday afternoon with gossip columns, theater listings, and Variety spread before him, checking what was on, who was in, what was hot.” To anyone who’s watched the show, that explains why Cerf always seemed to know who happened to be in town and would be available to drop by and appear on the show. (As a viewer, I’d have to say that didn’t make for good TV - it emphasized gamesmanship over game-playing, and spoiled the fun of watching the panel actually figure it out on their own.)
But I grudgingly understand why the book doesn’t have more to say about the show, since this is primarily a book about Random House and Cerf the publisher. Just be warned if you come into these 1,000+ pages expecting more about what most people remember him for.
What the book does do, is use What’s My Line? to illustrate the incongruity of Cerf’s highbrow/lowbrow “double life.” One telling anecdote has him recognized in an airport by an exuberant fan who clearly knows him only from TV. When he mentions he’s on his way to William Faulkner’s funeral, the fan asks, “who?” Another anecdote Feldman unearthed finds Cerf at a dinner party hosted by authors Robert Penn Warren and Eleanor Clark. When he excuses himself to watch that night’s prerecorded episode of What’s My Line?, he’s dismayed to find that not only does the cultured couple not own a television set, but they find it “disgusting” that he’d actually leave a party to sit down and watch himself on TV. He ends up going to the next-door neighbors’ house to watch, where he’s feted like the celebrity he sought to be.
Celebrity also led to many Hollywood connections, from his short, ill-fated first marriage to a starlet, to the second marriage that lasted (to a cousin of Ginger Rogers), and his unlikely friendship with the likes of Frank Sinatra - Cerf enjoyed the proximity to superstardom, while Sinatra liked being associated with someone he considered an intellectual.
Back to the book publishing business, though, which truly became a big business over time. Cerf was a serious publisher, but was also serious about being a salesman and a showman, hyping new releases, churning out bestsellers and turning Random House into a powerhouse. The company went public, merged with rivals, and was ultimately bought out by RCA, which Feldman pegs as an end to “the old order of owner-publishers,” and the new era of “corporate or conglomerate control.” After unapologetically helping to turn publishing into a big and profitable business, Cerf died a few years later. The book concludes with a post-Cerf history of Random House, which, after a revolving door of mergers and leaders, still endures.
The book’s length, and level of detail, makes this quite a commitment. I don’t know that I’d recommend it to a casual reader who has never heard of Cerf or has no interest in the book business. But once committed, I found the length and scope of the book got me invested in Cerf’s story and looking forward to what would happen next.
I did have to think about whether I found him likeable in the end. On the surface, he was a charmer and a bon vivant. On a deeper level, he could appear aloof, imperious, avaricious, superficial, and seemingly more devoted to his work, his friends and his public image than he was to his own family. He was an inveterate flirt, and Feldman suggests, but doesn’t appear to have the evidence to state outright, that he sometimes went much further than just flirting.
Nevertheless, I was engrossed throughout. To say that Feldman did her homework is an understatement, as not only did she thoroughly comb the vast archives, she conducted interviews with seemingly everyone still alive who knew Cerf (many of whom have passed away since she began her work), and even had to fact-check Cerf himself, as he was prone to exaggeration, storytelling and relating white lies about his background and family life, so Feldman couldn't take anything he said or wrote about himself at face value.
Ultimately, I came away impressed at Cerf’s fortitude at becoming a multi-hyphenate success, building a business that still stands today, all while dismissing any condescension and criticism that came his way. “As long as he could,” Feldman concludes, “he'd stare straight ahead and hug that lucky multi-lane highway that had brought celebrity and wealth. Paying tolls was the cost of the ride.”
Thanks to NetGalley and publisher Random House (naturally) for providing an advance copy of this book for review, ahead of its release today, January 13th.
Before reading this book, I read some interviews with author Gayle Feldman, in which she described discovering that Random House and Bennett Cerf each had a vast, untapped cache of papers. Even though she herself knew little about Cerf, she figured someone ought to do something with all of that source material. So she spent the last quarter century turning it - and her own extensive research - into what became this book.
The very audacity of putting out a 1,072-page, encyclopedic doorstop of a biography about someone whose ephemeral fame faded more than half a century ago was actually what piqued my curiosity about this book. A 300-pager, I might not have bothered with. But the heft of this book suggested this must be a life story worth telling.
In truth, Cerf seemed not quite complex and fascinating enough to merit all 1,000+ pages on his own. But his biography here is intertwined with a biography of Random House itself, with multiple mini-biographies along the way of the many authors he worked with and came to befriend - everyone from William Faulkner, to Gertrude Stein, to Truman Capote, to James Michener, to Ayn Rand, to Dr. Seuss - all of whom had their own compelling, complicated and sometimes tragic stories.
The story of Bennett Cerf, then, is really a larger story about the business he founded and the American book publishing business as a whole. He was good friends with Alfred Knopf, and college friends with Dick Simon and Max Schuster, all of whose names readers will recognize as having started their own publishing firms. Cerf got his start in the industry by republishing classics and works by foreign authors at a time when such books were harder to find. That led to his acquisition of the Modern Library, which led to the founding of Random House, which led Cerf to become as big in the publishing business as his contemporaries.
Much of the book delves into what made Cerf and Random House stand out. He was always searching for up-and-comers to sign, he was heavily invested in the care and feeding of his authors, he famously championed a controversial battle to publish Ulysses and overturn its ban on obscenity grounds, and he tapped into emerging publishing trends including the booming popularity of paperbacks, the sale of books in nontraditional public places beyond the bookstore, and the use of popular fiction as source material for Hollywood, as Cerf often negotiated film rights for books he published.
Not content to be a behind-the-scenes player, though, Cerf sought to be recognized in his own right. He began writing columns for the Saturday Review of Literature, which led to emceeing a book-related radio show, which led to writing humor columns, which led to writing books of his own compiling jokes and puns, which led to his invitation to become a panelist on TV's What’s My Line?, which turned into a 17-year gig and firmly established him as a “personality.”
Feldman traces these ambitions back to his time working at his college newspaper, which served him well on multiple fronts - it taught him “how to write amusingly and fast for publication," while "honing his innate ability to schmooze, charm, and make the right connections.”
This dichotomy between the serious and the silly, the highbrow and lowbrow, is an ongoing theme in the book. To those who knew him from TV, he came across as classy but accessible, witty without being a comedian, intelligent without being an intellectual. To many in the literary community, though, compiling joke books and appearing regularly on a TV game show made him seem like an unserious lightweight. Cerf shrugged off any criticisms, his usual retort being, “what can I say, I’m a ham,” and defending What’s My Line? as a simple pastime that did no harm. Besides, compared to the game shows of today, What’s My Line? was relatively dignified and erudite, so he wasn’t exactly debasing himself just by being on TV.
Since anyone who remembers him at all today, knows him from reruns of What’s My Line?, it was somewhat disappointing that there’s not more about the show in the book, considering it accounted for a good 17 years of his life. One chapter is devoted to the show (with at least one minor incorrect detail, about Johnny Olson announcing during Cerf's first appearance, when Olson didn’t join the show until many years later), followed by some fleeting references to the show here and there, but not much.
The most interesting anecdote about What’s My Line? is how Cerf “really wanted to win, and worked at it,” Feldman writes. In order to suss out who that Sunday’s celebrity “mystery guest” might be, “he’d sit in his office on a Friday afternoon with gossip columns, theater listings, and Variety spread before him, checking what was on, who was in, what was hot.” To anyone who’s watched the show, that explains why Cerf always seemed to know who happened to be in town and would be available to drop by and appear on the show. (As a viewer, I’d have to say that didn’t make for good TV - it emphasized gamesmanship over game-playing, and spoiled the fun of watching the panel actually figure it out on their own.)
But I grudgingly understand why the book doesn’t have more to say about the show, since this is primarily a book about Random House and Cerf the publisher. Just be warned if you come into these 1,000+ pages expecting more about what most people remember him for.
What the book does do, is use What’s My Line? to illustrate the incongruity of Cerf’s highbrow/lowbrow “double life.” One telling anecdote has him recognized in an airport by an exuberant fan who clearly knows him only from TV. When he mentions he’s on his way to William Faulkner’s funeral, the fan asks, “who?” Another anecdote Feldman unearthed finds Cerf at a dinner party hosted by authors Robert Penn Warren and Eleanor Clark. When he excuses himself to watch that night’s prerecorded episode of What’s My Line?, he’s dismayed to find that not only does the cultured couple not own a television set, but they find it “disgusting” that he’d actually leave a party to sit down and watch himself on TV. He ends up going to the next-door neighbors’ house to watch, where he’s feted like the celebrity he sought to be.
Celebrity also led to many Hollywood connections, from his short, ill-fated first marriage to a starlet, to the second marriage that lasted (to a cousin of Ginger Rogers), and his unlikely friendship with the likes of Frank Sinatra - Cerf enjoyed the proximity to superstardom, while Sinatra liked being associated with someone he considered an intellectual.
Back to the book publishing business, though, which truly became a big business over time. Cerf was a serious publisher, but was also serious about being a salesman and a showman, hyping new releases, churning out bestsellers and turning Random House into a powerhouse. The company went public, merged with rivals, and was ultimately bought out by RCA, which Feldman pegs as an end to “the old order of owner-publishers,” and the new era of “corporate or conglomerate control.” After unapologetically helping to turn publishing into a big and profitable business, Cerf died a few years later. The book concludes with a post-Cerf history of Random House, which, after a revolving door of mergers and leaders, still endures.
The book’s length, and level of detail, makes this quite a commitment. I don’t know that I’d recommend it to a casual reader who has never heard of Cerf or has no interest in the book business. But once committed, I found the length and scope of the book got me invested in Cerf’s story and looking forward to what would happen next.
I did have to think about whether I found him likeable in the end. On the surface, he was a charmer and a bon vivant. On a deeper level, he could appear aloof, imperious, avaricious, superficial, and seemingly more devoted to his work, his friends and his public image than he was to his own family. He was an inveterate flirt, and Feldman suggests, but doesn’t appear to have the evidence to state outright, that he sometimes went much further than just flirting.
Nevertheless, I was engrossed throughout. To say that Feldman did her homework is an understatement, as not only did she thoroughly comb the vast archives, she conducted interviews with seemingly everyone still alive who knew Cerf (many of whom have passed away since she began her work), and even had to fact-check Cerf himself, as he was prone to exaggeration, storytelling and relating white lies about his background and family life, so Feldman couldn't take anything he said or wrote about himself at face value.
Ultimately, I came away impressed at Cerf’s fortitude at becoming a multi-hyphenate success, building a business that still stands today, all while dismissing any condescension and criticism that came his way. “As long as he could,” Feldman concludes, “he'd stare straight ahead and hug that lucky multi-lane highway that had brought celebrity and wealth. Paying tolls was the cost of the ride.”
Thanks to NetGalley and publisher Random House (naturally) for providing an advance copy of this book for review, ahead of its release today, January 13th.
December 11, 2025
A century later, Random House, a brand, glides off the tongue. We hardly consider the literal meaning, or what an odd–inspired–pairing the words are. from Nothing Random
My husband enjoys watching old What’s My Line episodes. He always loved Bennet Cert. I noted Cerf’s round glasses and high voice, not really impressed. But my husband raved about his humor and intelligence.
When I learned that Cerf had created Random House, I was set back on my heels. As soon as I saw this biography, I had to read it.
It is a doorstopper! And I absolutely loved every minute I spent reading it. I loved Cerf, I loved learning about the publishing house he built, and I loved learning about the greater world of publishing and publishers.
I was amazed at what Cerf accomplished. After working for Boni & Liveright, he bought their Modern Library (ML) series, and with his good friend Donald Klopfer, started Random House (RH)–with the idea that they would publish books ‘at random’.
Cerf accomplished miracles, like getting James Joyce’s Ulysses published in America. RH published ‘Bill’ Faulkner and Eugene O’Neill with personal attention and friendship. James Michener was a constant money maker for RH, and later Philip Roth.
Other RH authors included John O’Hara, William Styron, Robert Penn Warren, Shelby Foote, Vladimir Nabokov, Cormac McCarthy, Peter Matthiessen, Joseph Heller, Chaim Potok. Oh, and they published the Shirley Temple Story Book and the Walter Farley Black Stallion books which I loved so much.
Cerf’s wife Phyllis oversaw a new line, Beginner Books, which published Dr. Seuss and the Berenstain’s bear stories that our son loved.
Cerf was a driven workaholic with boundless energy. Liveright provided him a role model as publisher, and he looked up to Alfred Knopf.
Cerf’s joy and humor, the depths he kept hidden, his foibles and his brilliance, come across in countless stories. He was ambivalent about being Jewish, a liberal in his politics.
He hated Ayn rand’s philosophy, but published her books–until she wrote one calling President Kennedy a fascist. He had to back down from excluding Ezra Pound from a poetry anthology.
His beloved uncle was gay. He was enthralled by Gertrude Stein. Truman Capote was a frequent guest in the Cerf household and was especially close to Phyllis Cerf.
He hired an African American receptionist. RH published Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Muhammad Ali’s autobiography, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, and Maya Angelou.
Ah, Bill…I love being alive so much!” Bennet Cerf to William Styron
Cerf loved attention and he gloried in his seventeen years on What’s My Line, wrote numerous humor books and a magazine column, and was friends with the famous, like Frank Sinatra.
Random House flourished, went public, merged with Knopf, Pantheon, was bought by RCA, and in 2012, RH merged with Penguin.
Just a delight of a read!
Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.
My husband enjoys watching old What’s My Line episodes. He always loved Bennet Cert. I noted Cerf’s round glasses and high voice, not really impressed. But my husband raved about his humor and intelligence.
When I learned that Cerf had created Random House, I was set back on my heels. As soon as I saw this biography, I had to read it.
It is a doorstopper! And I absolutely loved every minute I spent reading it. I loved Cerf, I loved learning about the publishing house he built, and I loved learning about the greater world of publishing and publishers.
I was amazed at what Cerf accomplished. After working for Boni & Liveright, he bought their Modern Library (ML) series, and with his good friend Donald Klopfer, started Random House (RH)–with the idea that they would publish books ‘at random’.
Cerf accomplished miracles, like getting James Joyce’s Ulysses published in America. RH published ‘Bill’ Faulkner and Eugene O’Neill with personal attention and friendship. James Michener was a constant money maker for RH, and later Philip Roth.
Other RH authors included John O’Hara, William Styron, Robert Penn Warren, Shelby Foote, Vladimir Nabokov, Cormac McCarthy, Peter Matthiessen, Joseph Heller, Chaim Potok. Oh, and they published the Shirley Temple Story Book and the Walter Farley Black Stallion books which I loved so much.
Cerf’s wife Phyllis oversaw a new line, Beginner Books, which published Dr. Seuss and the Berenstain’s bear stories that our son loved.
Cerf was a driven workaholic with boundless energy. Liveright provided him a role model as publisher, and he looked up to Alfred Knopf.
Cerf’s joy and humor, the depths he kept hidden, his foibles and his brilliance, come across in countless stories. He was ambivalent about being Jewish, a liberal in his politics.
He hated Ayn rand’s philosophy, but published her books–until she wrote one calling President Kennedy a fascist. He had to back down from excluding Ezra Pound from a poetry anthology.
His beloved uncle was gay. He was enthralled by Gertrude Stein. Truman Capote was a frequent guest in the Cerf household and was especially close to Phyllis Cerf.
He hired an African American receptionist. RH published Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, Muhammad Ali’s autobiography, Lorraine Hansberry’s A Raisin in the Sun, and Maya Angelou.
Ah, Bill…I love being alive so much!” Bennet Cerf to William Styron
Cerf loved attention and he gloried in his seventeen years on What’s My Line, wrote numerous humor books and a magazine column, and was friends with the famous, like Frank Sinatra.
Random House flourished, went public, merged with Knopf, Pantheon, was bought by RCA, and in 2012, RH merged with Penguin.
Just a delight of a read!
Thanks to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley.
November 3, 2025
Thank you to NetGalley for providing this ARC.
Wow, this was such a great book! It was very long and it clearly involved a ton of research, truly an impressive feat!
I didn't know much about Bennett Cerf before this book, but I found the topic super interesting. I really loved learning not just about his life, but about the whole publishing industry at the time.
There were so many interesting tidbits in this book, I feel like I learned something neat/read something funny on pretty much every page, which to me very much justified the length if this book.
I also really loved the included pictures, always helps to have those in a nonfiction book.
I would genuinely recommend this book to anyone interested in the publishing industry because it truly has so much information, you won't be disappointed!
Wow, this was such a great book! It was very long and it clearly involved a ton of research, truly an impressive feat!
I didn't know much about Bennett Cerf before this book, but I found the topic super interesting. I really loved learning not just about his life, but about the whole publishing industry at the time.
There were so many interesting tidbits in this book, I feel like I learned something neat/read something funny on pretty much every page, which to me very much justified the length if this book.
I also really loved the included pictures, always helps to have those in a nonfiction book.
I would genuinely recommend this book to anyone interested in the publishing industry because it truly has so much information, you won't be disappointed!
January 14, 2026
This amazing, detailed biography of Bennett Cerf is really amazing. I had heard of him and knew him from reruns of television shows from back in the day, and I’m pretty sure we had some of his joke books knocking around the house when I was a kid, but I honestly had no idea of his impact on not only the publishing industry but on American literature itself.
Cerf emerges as a complicated character, who fights hard for his writers and for the books he wants published, but sometimes drops the ball when it comes to family and friends.
I could possibly have done without as much detail of each RH merger and acquisition, but maybe that’s just me.
Got this as an advance copy from NetGalley but I will be purchasing this for my Library.
Cerf emerges as a complicated character, who fights hard for his writers and for the books he wants published, but sometimes drops the ball when it comes to family and friends.
I could possibly have done without as much detail of each RH merger and acquisition, but maybe that’s just me.
Got this as an advance copy from NetGalley but I will be purchasing this for my Library.
September 29, 2025
I knew very little about Bennett Cerf aside from his appearances on the television show “What’s My Line” so I looked him up while watching reruns and discovered that he founded Random House. When this book became available, I put it on my must-read list. And I did learn a lot, both about Mr Cerf and about the publishing industry. But at several points I was just overwhelmed by the amount of detail and I would lose track of what I was reading. If I were rating this book on depth of information, I would give it five stars, but ultimately, I rated the book on my enjoyment of it. Thank you to Netgalley and Random House for the advance reader copy.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
Watching reruns of the 1950’s era What’s My Line game show on cable, I often wondered how the CEO and founder of the world’s most formidable publishing house became a game show panelist, so incongruous are the two worlds. Nothing Random answers that question, offering a detailed look into the life of Bennett Cerf and his creation, the publishing company Random House. Perhaps of most interest to those interested in the publishing world, this book offers a look into one man’s drive to publish great authors (Faulkner, Joyce, Ayn Rand, Dr. Seuss, in much detail) and become a celebrity in his own right.
January 5, 2026
I received this via NetGalley.
Wow, what a biography! This was a very long one, but so worth the journey and easy to read over the course of a long period of time. I highly recommend to any book lovers. I knew Bennett Cerf from What’s My Line? and obviously knew he was involved with Penguin-Random House but didn’t realize just how involved he was with so many of today’s classics.
His relationships with the different authors was a particular highlight for me… Eugene ONeill, Gertrude Stein, William Faulkner…
Wow, what a biography! This was a very long one, but so worth the journey and easy to read over the course of a long period of time. I highly recommend to any book lovers. I knew Bennett Cerf from What’s My Line? and obviously knew he was involved with Penguin-Random House but didn’t realize just how involved he was with so many of today’s classics.
His relationships with the different authors was a particular highlight for me… Eugene ONeill, Gertrude Stein, William Faulkner…
January 16, 2026
My full review is on the Open Letters Review website at https://openlettersreview.com/posts/n....
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