Home
Search transcripts:    Advanced Search
Notable New     Yorkers
Select     Notable New Yorker

Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
Photo Gallery
Transcript

Session:         Page of 1029

And she said, “I should say not. I know how you look. I've seen you on television, but you don't know how I look, and that's the way it's going to stay.” She said, “You remember me the way I looked in those days.”

I wheedled and cajoled but it was no soap. She said, “Absolutely no. You just remember me the way I looked then. I wish I looked that way now.”

Q:

Isn't that funny? You never know what's going to happen in life, really. And now that we're talking about Paris, how about talking about your adventures with Gertrude Stein?

Cerf:

When I first met Gertrude Stein she had already published her “Alice B. Toklas.” Harcourt published it. We had done a couple of limited editions for her, however. And Carl Van Vechten, who was a friend of mine, had suggested that maybe we would like to publish her; that she had written a lot of things before Toklas, which was a pretty big best seller. It was a curiosity best seller. We corresponded, and she gave us a couple of things to publish, none of which made much sense to me, but we published them in small editions. She came over to America early in 1935.

Q:

Do you remember meeting her for the first time?

Cerf:

I'm trying to remember whether I met her in Paris before she came over here or not. I can't remember. But I do remember





© 2006 Columbia University Libraries | Oral History Research Office | Rights and Permissions | Help