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Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
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Session:         Page of 1029

For some reason or another his popularity didn't hold up.

Q:

I think that it has.

Cerf:

No, you don't hear his name much. His last two books have not done too well.

Q:

I don't know about his last two books, but there's one book that we read in college by him in a philosophy...

Cerf:

That was the big one. Yes. When he started, he was enormously popular. He still sells well, but nothing like he did. That's true of a lot of authors. They have a huge success, and then they begin to...

Q:

Times change too, and they don't change with the times.

Cerf:

Well, he said what he had to say. His interpretation of Chinese philosophy was most interesting. Don't forget that he was not part of the new China. He was part of the old China. He represents the China that was overthrown. He was more the Chiang Kai-shek China than the Mao Tse-tung China.

Q:

What would Edgar Snow for instance think of him?

Cerf:

I'm sure he'd label him an unreconstructed Chinese reactionary!





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