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Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
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Session:         Page of 1029

Q:

Do you remember who else was there? We haven't gone into at all the personnel...in other words, how you developed into a large company.

Cerf:

Well, at that time Saxe Commins was already our editor. He came with Eugene O'Neill when we signed up O'Neill. One of the conditions he made was that I would give a job to his old friend Saxe Commins, who had started life as Eugene O'Neill's dentist up in Rochester, New York. Well, we gave Saxe a job. I would have given a job to anybody to get O'Neill.

Q:

Had you known Saxe when you...?

Cerf:

I had just met him at Liveright's. He had come just about the time I was leaving.

Saxe turned out to be one of the great men of Random House. He was our senior editor for years, until he died.

Q:

Would he read most of the unsolicited...?

Cerf:

Well, he was top editor and a wonderful man. I've been very lucky in the people I've had around me.

Then I got as a sales manager a fellow named Louis Miller--Lou Miller. Miller was with us until he retired last year. He was very, very important in the growth of Random House.





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