Bennett Cerf (1898 – 1971)

After graduating from Columbia University Cerf worked for a short time as a reporter and at a Wall Street brokerage before being named a Vice President at the publishing firm of Boni & Liveright. Him and partner, Donald S. Klopfer, bought the rights to the Modern Library from Boni & Liveright and began to publish other books 'at random' - founding the publishing house Random House. He won a landmark censorship case, The United States vs One Book Called Ulysses and gained the rights to publish James Joyce's classic book in the United States in 1933.

Cerf published his first collection of jokes, Try and Stop Me, in 1944, and followed with multiple others, including some for the Random House line of Beginner Books pioneered by Dr. Seuss and Cerf's wife Phyllis Fraser. Cerf and Fraser, a hollywood actress, married in 1940. His first marriage was also to an actress, Sylvia Sidney, for six months in 1935.

Bennett Cerf was also known for his appearances on the comedy television show What's My Line, and was a juror for the Miss America contest twice.

Cerf died August 27, 1971 of natural causes in Mount Kisco, New York, where he owned an estate and had a street named after him.