At Random

%u201CI%u2019ve got the name for our publishing operation. We just said we were going to publish a few books on the side at random. Let%u2019s call it Random House.%u201D So recounts Bennett Cerf in this wonderfully amusing memoir of the making of a great publishing house. An incomparable raconteur, possessed of an irrepressible wit and an abiding love of books and authors, Cerf brilliantly evokes the heady days of Random House%u2019s first decades. Part of the vanguard of young New York publishers who revolutionized the book business in the 1920s and %u201930s, Cerf helped usher in publishing%u2019s golden age. Cerf was a true personality, whose other pursuits (columnist, anthologist, author, lecturer, radio host, collector of jokes and anecdotes, perennial judge of the Miss America pageant, and panelist on What%u2019s My Line?) helped shape his reputation as a man of boundless energy and enthusiasm and brought unprecedented attention to his company and to his authors. At once a rare behind-the-scenes account of book publishing and a fascinating portrait of four decades%u2019 worth of legendary authors, from James Joyce and William Faulkner to Ralph Ellison and Eudora Welty, At Random is a feast for bibliophiles and anyone who%u2019s ever wondered what goes on inside a publishing house. Solid binding. Moderate edgewear on the boards. Moderate shelf wear. Please note the image in this listing is a stock photo and may not match the covers of the actual item.…