Collection ID: 4079659 MS#0206

Collection context

Summary

Creator:
Cerf, Bennett, 1898-1971
Extent:
52 linear feet and 71 boxes 45 volumes 22 oversized items
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Bennett Cerf papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

Background

Scope and Content:

Correspondence, manuscripts, memorabilia, photographs, phonograph and tape recordings, and printed files. Included are Cerf's personal correspondence files, 1929-1945, and the diaries and scrapbooks which he maintained from his school days throughout his active career. The diaries, in date-book format, contain terse notes on Cerf's meetings with authors and friends, on his travels and publishing activities; the scrapbooks contain correspondence and photographs, as well as memorabilia and printed items, and were annotated by Cerf and his wife, Phyllis Fraser Cerf Wagner. Also in the collection are manuscripts and proofs for Cerf's books including "The Laugh's on Me""Treasury of Atrocious Puns""The Sound of Laughter""Stories to Make You Feel Better", and "At Random: the Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf", which was edited by Phyllis Cerf Wagner and Albert Erskine, 1977. The papers also include condolence letters written at the time of Cerf's death, photographs and photo albums,certificates and awards, and miscellaneous printed material, including Random House and Modern Library catalogues. Among the major correspondents are: Truman Capote, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Edna Ferber, Moss Hart, J. Edgar Hoover, Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon B. Johnson, John Lindsay, Joshua Logan, John O'Hara, Jacqueline Onassis, Richard Rodgers, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gertrude Stein, Adlai Stevenson, Harry Truman, and Robert Penn Warren

Biographical / Historical:

Author & publisher. Columbia A.B. 1919; Litt.B. 1920.

Acquisition information:

Source of acquisition--Wagner, Phyllis Cerf. Method of acquisition--Gift; Date of acquisition--1975. Accession number--M-1975.

12 letters to from M.H. Sherwood: Source of acquisition--2293B. Method of acquisition--Purchase; Date of acquisition--10/09/1998. Accession number--M-98-10-09.

Custodial history:

Gift of Phyllis Cerf Wagner and the Cerf Foundation, 1975, 1978-1981 (yearly), 1983& 1984; Gift of Random House, 1988.

Processing information:

Processed 12/--/1988.

12 letters to & from M.H. Sherwood Cataloged HR 10/15/1998.

Arrangement:

Selected materials cataloged; remainder arranged.

Accruals:

Materials may have been added to the collection since this finding aid was prepared. Contact rbml@columbia.edu for more information.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Indexed Terms

Subjects:
Literature
Publishers and publishing
Scrapbooks
Authors, American
Editors
Albums (books)
Articles
Audiocassettes
Awards
Bookplates
Certificates
Diaries
Illustrations
Lectures
Memoirs
Notebooks
Passports
Phonograph records
Photographs
Proofs (printed matter)
Speeches (documents)
Tape recordings
Sound recordings
Names:
Random House (Firm)
Adams, Samuel Hopkins, 1871-1958
Annenberg, Walter H., 1908-2002
Astaire, Fred
Auchincloss, Louis
Baldwin, Faith, 1893-1978
Baruch, Bernard M. (Bernard Mannes), 1870-1965
Baxter, Anne
Benny, Jack, 1894-1974
Berlin, Irving, 1888-1989
Bliven, Bruce, 1916-2002
Bow, Clara, 1905-1965
Bradley, Omar Nelson, 1893-1981
Cabell, James Branch, 1879-1958
Canfield, Cass, 1897-1986
Capote, Truman, 1924-1984
Cerf, Christopher
Cooke, Alistair, 1908-2004
Cousins, Norman
Dewey, Thomas E (Thomas Edmund), 1902-1971
Dreiser, Theodore, 1871-1945
Eban, Abba Solomon, 1915-2002
Fadiman, Clifton, 1904-1999
Faulkner, William, 1897-1962
Ferber, Edna, 1887-1968
Fisher, Dorothy Canfield, 1879-1958
Flower, Desmond, 1907-1997
Fontaine, Joan, 1917-2013
Gershwin, George, 1898-1937
Gershwin, Ira, 1896-1983
Gingrich, Arnold
Goldwyn, Samuel, Jr., 1926-2015
Green, Martyn, 1899-1975
Gruening, Ernest, 1887-1974
Harriman, W. Averell (William Averell), 1891-1986
Hart, Moss, 1904-1961
Hemingway, Ernest, 1899-1961
Hersey, John, 1914-1993
Hitchcock, Alfred, 1899-1980
Hoover, J. Edgar (John Edgar), 1895-1972
Humphrey, Hubert H. (Hubert Horatio), 1911-1978
Hurlock, Madeline, 1899-1989
Huxley, Aldous, 1894-1963
Ingersoll, Ralph, 1900-1985
Javits, Jacob K. (Jacob Koppel), 1904-1986
Johnson, Lyndon B. (Lyndon Baines), 1908-1973
Jones, James, 1921-1977
Jovanovich, William
Kennedy, Edward M. (Edward Moore), 1932-2009
Kent, Rockwell, 1882-1971
Kerr, Jean
Knopf, Alfred A., 1892-1984
Koch, Ed, 1924-2013
Kollek, Teddy, 1911-2007
Lefkowitz, Louis J.
Lindsay, John V. (John Vliet)
Logan, Joshua
Loos, Anita, 1893-1981
McBride, Mary Margaret, 1899-1976
McFee, William, 1881-1966
Machen, Arthur, 1863-1947
McKuen, Rod
Malraux, AndreĢ, 1901-1976
Maugham, W. Somerset (William Somerset), 1874-1965
Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis), 1880-1956
Merrick, David
Michener, James A (James Albert), 1907-1997
Morley, Christopher, 1890-1957
Nash, Ogden, 1902-1971
Nathan, George Jean, 1882-1958
O'Flaherty, Liam, 1896-1984
O'Hara, John, 1905-1970
Onassis, Jacqueline Kennedy, 1929-1994
Paley, William S (William Samuel), 1901-1990
Robinson, Edwin Arlington, 1869-1935
Rodgers, Richard, 1902-1979
Rockefeller, Nelson A. (Nelson Aldrich), 1908-1979
Roosevelt, Franklin D (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945
Roth, Philip
Rusk, Dean, 1909-1994
Russell, Rosalind
Schiff, Dorothy, 1903-1989
Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr (Arthur Meier), 1917-2007
Schulberg, Budd
Sevareid, Eric, 1912-1992
Shaw, Irwin, 1913-1984
Slesinger, Tess, 1905-1945
Stein, Gertrude, 1874-1946
Steinbeck, John, 1902-1968
Stevenson, Adlai E (Adlai Ewing), 1900-1965
Styron, William, 1925-2006
Tracy, Honor, 1915-
Truman, Harry S., 1884-1972
Updike, John
Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964
Fraser, Phyllis, 1911-2006
Wallace, Henry A (Henry Agard), 1888-1965
Warren, Robert Penn, 1905-1989
Weidman, Jerome, 1913-1998
White, E. B (Elwyn Brooks), 1899-1985
Wiesel, Elie, 1928-2016
Williams, G. Mennen, 1911-1988
Willkie, Wendell L (Wendell Lewis), 1892-1944
Woollcott, Alexander, 1887-1943
Wynn, Ed, 1886-1966

Online content

Access

RESTRICTIONS:

The following boxes are located off-site: Boxes 3-75. You will need to request this material at least three business days in advance to use the collection in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library reading room.

This collection has no restrictions.

Unique time-based media items have been reformatted and are available onsite via links in the container list. Commercial materials are not routinely digitized.

TERMS OF ACCESS:

Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. The RBML maintains ownership of the physical material only. Copyright remains with the creator and his/her heirs. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

PREFERRED CITATION:

Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Bennett Cerf papers; Box and Folder; Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University Library.

LOCATION OF THIS COLLECTION:
6th Floor East Butler Library
535 West 114th St.
New York, NY 10027, United States
CONTACT:
(212) 854-5590
rbml@library.columbia.edu