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Bennett CerfBennett Cerf
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Session:         Page of 1029

Q:

Was he a religious man?

Cerf:

No.

Now, as to his drunkenness, later it's been said that he had very little resistence. He didn't have to drink too much to get drunk, and sometimes he would fake a little bit. If he didn't want to do some work, he would fake that he was drunk.

Q:

Was he a fast writer or was he a slow writer?

Cerf:

I would say average...not too slow, but not too fast either. His handwriting was tiny--very much like Eugene O'Neil's.

What a lot of people don't realize, because of the tragedy in most of his books, is that he was a comic genius. Bill had a wonderful sense of humor; and The Reivers, his last book, proves how funny he was. He saw all of the tragedy of the old South, but he also saw the humor in some of these people. I consider him one of the great novelists in American literature, and I am certain that his reputation will survive for a long, long time.

Q:

What is his wife doing now?

Cerf:

I've lost track of her.

But Jill...When I spoke at the University of Virginia





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