Collections

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.

Large groups of correspondence with members of the editorial board including Henry Seidel Canby, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, John Marquand, Christopher Morley, and William Allen White, which contain insights into the Club's activities, organization, and literary policies. Also, material relating to Scherman's careers as writer, economist, and philanthropist. Mr. Scherman's economic activities are represented by files of correspondence and papers of the National Bureau of Economic Research, the Federal Union, and the Committee on Economic Development. Among the personal items in the collection are manuscripts of his publications, reviews of his writings, numerous awards he has received, photographs, and documents relating to his long and rich career. There are two particularly warm letters from Winston Churchill and Albert Einstein. Also, additional personal and professional correspondence files of Scherman with publishers, agents, authors, Book of the Month Club judges, and organizations with which he was affiliated.

Papers dealing with Robinson's activities as a student and instructor in English at Columbia University, editor of CONTEMPORARY VERSE, senior editor at THE READER'S DIGEST, poet and author of many books including THE CARDINAL. Among the correspondents are Melville Cane, Paul de Kruif, John Erskine, Merrill Moore, and Christopher Morley.

The files of the literary agency include correspondence with authors, publishers, and other agents and deal with editing and publishing, serial rights, reprints, dramatic rights, translations and foreign rights, promotion, copyright registration, contracts, royalty statements, tax statements, and other financial materials, and the personal affairs of many clients. Among the cataloged correspondents are: Louis S. Auchincloss, Erskine Caldwell, Herbert Gold, Alberto Moravia, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Rebecca West.

Thompson's correspondence with John Mason Brown, Henry S. Canby, Basil Davenport, Clifton Fadiman, Dorothy Canfield Fisher, Gilbert Highet, Paul Horgan, John K. Hutchens, Amy Loveman, John Marquand, and Christopher Morley and their reports dealing with the selection of books to be offered by the Book-of-the-Month Club.