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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

Papers documenting Longwell's influential career in publishing and journalism. There are files of correspondence with such notables as Sir Winston Churchill, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Hart Benton, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Christopher Morley, and H.L. Mencken as well as artists such as Tom Lea and Peter Hurd. Also, correspondence and memoranda dealing with the Time-Life organization, among them an extensive series of letters from Henry R. Luce and various editors of the magazines.

Correspondence, manuscripts, memoranda, contracts, and other legal documents, account books, royalty statements and other financial records, photographs, printed materials, and card files of the Watkins Loomis, Inc. literary agency. The papers deal with editorial, financial, and legal aspects of publishing, magazine, theatrical and film rights, and all other personal and professional activities of their American and English clients. Among these clients have been Michael Arlen, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Theodore Dreiser, Ernest Hemingway, Sinclair Lewis, Carson McCullers, Ezra Pound, Ayn Rand, Dorothy Sayers, Gertrude Stein, and Dylan Thomas.