Bennett Cerf

Bennett Cerf
Bennett Cerf, 1932 photograph by Carl Van Vechten
Born	Bennett Alfred Cerf (1898-05-25)May 25, 1898 Manhattan, New York
Died	August 27, 1971(1971-08-27) (aged 73) Mount Kisco, New York
Occupation	Humorist Publisher
Language	English
Ethnicity	Jewish
Alma mater	Columbia University
Spouse	Sylvia Sidney (1935–36) Phyllis Fraser (1940–71)
Children	Christopher Cerf Jonathan Cerf

Bennett Alfred Cerf (May 25, 1898 – August 27, 1971) was an American publisher, one of the founders of American publishing firm Random House. Cerf was also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his television appearances in the panel game show What's My Line?

Bennett Cerf was born on May 25, 1898 in Manhattan, New York to a Jewish family of Alsatian and German origin. Cerf's father Gustave Cerf was a lithographer; his mother Frederika Wise was heiress to a tobacco-distribution fortune. She died when Bennett was fifteen; shortly afterward, her brother Herbert moved into the Cerf household and became a strong literary and social influence on the teenager.

Cerf attended Townsend Harris High School, the same public school as publisher Richard Simon and playwright Howard Dietz. He spent his teenage years at 790 Riverside Drive, an apartment building in Washington Heights that was home to two friends who became prominent as adults: Howard Dietz and Hearst newspapers financial editor Merryle Rukeyser. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Columbia College of Columbia University (1919) and his Litt.B. (1920) from its School of Journalism. After graduation, he briefly worked as a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune and for some time in a Wall Street brokerage. He then was named a vice-president of the publishing firm Boni & Liveright.