Nothing Random

“An engrossing and intimate story of Bennett Cerf’s incredible publishing journey through the American Century … Feldman’s is a stunning achievement.”—Kai Bird, Pulitzer Prize–winning co-author of American Prometheus“In Nothing Random, her rousing biography of Bennett Cerf, Gayle Feldman conjures an era when a glamorous publishing figure could be a household name. As delightful as it is hefty … [a] big, beautiful biography … a biographer’s dream task: to reconstruct the life of someone who was both very important and largely forgotten.”—The New York Times “A superb work with nary a hint of hagiography… . a whole lot of fun.”—The Washington Post“An intriguing portrait of a deeply conflicted man … intelligent, exhilarating.”—The Boston Globe“Feldman’s foundational biography of this unique and consequential publisher is magnificent, engrossing, and invaluable.”—Booklist, starred review“Few people know more about the publishing business than Gayle Feldman, whose analytic eye is tempered with a warm heart. This incisive but sympathetic portrait explains why Gertrude Stein (of all people) said that Cerf was ‘the only publisher I will ever love.’”—Amanda Vaill, bestselling author of Pride and Pleasure: The Schuyler Sisters in an Age of Revolution“A monumental biography … Bennett Cerf didn’t just publish books—he shaped American culture. Come for the Ulysses free speech case, stay for the boozy late nights with Frank Sinatra.”—Heather Clark, Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of Red Comet: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath“Cerf lived a larger-than-life life. This is the biography the great publisher deserves—a Lucullan feast of a book, meticulously researched, elegantly written, and filled with boldfaced names. For all its appropriate heft, it’s a page-turner.”—James Kaplan, bestselling author of Frank: The Voice and Sinatra: The Chairman “Authoritative and always entertaining, Nothing Random is like being a guest at one of Cerf’s legendary dinners, where authors met Broadway composers and TV celebrities and no one went home early.”—Joseph Kanon, former book editor and bestselling author of Istanbul Passage and Shanghai “The visionary publisher who became a TV star everyone knew … Nothing Random has the reader racing through the pages. Cerf was a whirlwind, and hats off to a biographer who keeps pace with him.”—Molly Haskell, critic and author of Frankly, My Dear: Gone with the Wind Revisited“Drawing on Cerf’s personal archive, as well those of writers he worked with, and more than 200 interviews, Feldman paints a candid portrait of one of the giants of modern publishing, who emerges as a charming, humorous man who was open to ‘many worlds, high and low, mass and class’ and committed to his authors.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review “A well-crafted life of a publisher whose world spanned culture high and low, and whose influence endures.”—Kirkus Reviews“Not only does Gayle Feldman’s definitive biography highlight Cerf’s literary instincts, it also reveals a canny businessman who understood how to make books a part of America’s burgeoning, mid-century celebrity culture, making the likes of Truman Capote and James Michener into household names.”—Literary Hub

Gayle Feldman has written for Publishers Weekly for forty years, including as a senior staff editor; since 1999, as U.S. correspondent for The Bookseller, she has analyzed the American book business for U.K. readers; and she has contributed features and reviews on books and culture to The New York Times, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Times of London. She is the author of the cancer memoir You Don’t Have to Be Your Mother, published by W. W. Norton, and was awarded a National Arts Journalism Program fellowship at Columbia University, through which she published Best and Worst of Times: The Changing Business of Trade Books. The National Endowment for the Humanities has supported her work on Nothing Random with a Public Scholars award. She lives in New York City and Sag Harbor.