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Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
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Session:         Page of 1029

The entire arrangement was really a gift from Francis because he could have sold these books himself. We became fast friends. I'll get ahead of myself, because Francis came to America as our guest in 1929. By this time I guess he was Sir Francis Meynell. He came over in the spring of 1929. As the founder and head of the Nonesuch Press, he was in enormous demand with all the bibliophile societies. Everybody wanted Francis to make speeches. He was an elegant Englishman. He could have walked right on to any stage or into any drawing room--

Q:

Was he good-looking?

Cerf:

Oh, an absolute knock-out. We by this time had moved from 45th Street to new offices at 20 East 57th Street, just west of Madison Avenue on the south side of the street, right next to the building on the corner. We had by this time plenty of money because the Modern Library had been a wild success, and the private press books were booming. We fixed up very nice offices. We were on the fifth floor. On the second floor of this building there was a brokerage office called De Saint Phalle and Company. It was doing a land office business, because this was 1928-'29, the top of the bull market. Everybody was getting rich overnight. Nobody was ever in his office. They were always at the broker's. I remember once Mr. Womrath who owned a great chain of bookstores and libraries in New York. They kept a complete set of the Modern Library in each of





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