Dear Donald, Dear Bennett Read online

  Sally’s book is moving too at the rate of between 100 and 250 a day. Macy’s Modern Library order yesterday was for 2800 of the regulars—about the biggest Modern Library order we’ve gotten from that bailiwick in many a long day. I am still trying to get them to use the THREE FAMOUS SPY NOVELS for their July mystery book of the month. Peg [Macy’s book buyer] and George are coming up to my house for dinner on Monday night, along with the Hollisters, the Farnols and the Ernie Heyns. For your information, Ernie Heyn is the new editor-in-chief of Liberty Magazine, and I am trying to sell him PARIS as a one-shot condensation. You will recall the new Mrs. Ernie Heyn when I tell you that her name was once Ethel Butterworth!

  First reviews on Quent’s book are out and out raves. Kroch has gone crazy about it and sent letters to all his customers saying that it is the most exciting book he has read in 35 years. I wouldn’t be surprised if we went over 10,000 on this one. All in all, I feel like sending a telegram of congratulation to Mr. Morgenthau.

  As I indicated to you, we are going to show a profit of about $3800.00. The preliminary figure is $145,000.00. We wrote all the dollar Whitman stuff down to 13¢ and all the Lifetime Library Books down to 40¢ and 50¢ apiece. This accounted for a great deal, but we still had to drop the price of all the Modern Library books, including the Giants, about 3¢ apiece in order to get the desired results. I honestly think that there will be no question about this because, even at the new figure, our Modern Library inventory is still way higher than it was a year ago and is so big that we feel fully justified in marking it down et al, and our stock will be as clean as a bone in a few days’ time. And by God, we mean to keep it that way. After this we are going to let books go out of print when the demand starts dribbling off rather than getting ourselves stuck with a whole new edition. This has happened all too frequently in the past. We are all watching this stock problem together now. In fact, the team work has been marvelous and if only we don’t lose more key people in the course of the coming weeks we’ll get along O.K. I am afraid Russell* and Whitney will be the next to go.

  Last night about 150 people gathered at the Ambassador for a surprise dinner to Amy Loveman. It really turned out to be a wonderful affair. Elmer Davis spoke just before hopping off to his new job in Washington. Chris Morley and Tom Lamont also gave amusing talks. The voice of the publishing industry also made a magnificent impression, but modesty forbids me to go into further detail in this connection. Bob Linscott and Bob Haas occupied the guest room at 132 after the party was over. Tonight Merle and Bob, Charlie Addams and Boris Karloff are coming to the house for dinner. That is about the sum total of my social life for the month.

  It looks as though Doubleday Doran have managed to get rid of their Garden City plant to the Perry Gyroscope Company. The deal hasn’t gone through yet, but Wolff and Satenstein are sitting around licking their chops in gleeful anticipation of new business. The deal won’t hurt that rickety Doubleday balance sheet, however! Gene Reynal is off for the Navy and Reed has gotten a job with Curtise Hitchcock. Speaking of Satenstein, I read THE LAST MAN COMES HOME over the weekend. I am sorry to report that it is probably the worst piece of garbage that we ever brought out under the Random House imprint. We are going to print 5000 copies from type and let it go at that.

  Oh hell, that’s enough for now. Go back to your drill and remember that we all love you and miss you here. I wish I were coming over with Pat tomorrow!

  As ever,

  Bennett

  June 18/1942

  Dear Bennett:

  I never did receive the various lists you promised me. Tell Pauline to send me the summer list and the mimeographical sheet! She’s neglecting me horribly—but I suspect you’re keeping her busy, and I’m forgotten.

  As you can see by this letter my finger is out of its splint and I can’t bend it much yet but on the whole it didn’t bother me too much. They marched the ass off us to-day and then put us thru’ gas chambers so that we were tear gassed—then I found out a gas mask really works. This week has been dryer (I hope you spell it that way) than heretofore—we’re having a lot of military law and company management—last night I was assistant Officer of the Day—stayed up all night—posted guards. Ran around the grounds in a car—acted important all around and got mighty tired. Week after next I know what they’ll do with me—for a few weeks anyway—but not for much more than that.

  I am mighty depressed by the Libyan news. But here you can’t tell anything—but it doesn’t look good to me. Maybe I’ll get to India yet.

  Give my love to the gang—I can’t write all of them separately—but I certainly miss that bunch—they’re swell and I’m lonesome for them and especially you—you old horse.

  Congratulations on the May deal—no Book Club choice?

  Love,

  Donald

  June 19, 1942

  Dear Donald:

  You’ve got a hell of a chutzpah kicking about my lack of writing when poor little Jezebel typed her fingers to the bone the other night on a document that was three paragraphs longer than WAR AND PEACE. And we don’t want to hear any crap about letters crossing in the mail either!

  By the time this letter reaches you Pat will already have told you all the social news. Here is the business dope in a nutshell.

  Good old Moriarty died on Wednesday night. I am sure you will feel just as badly about it as I did. Paul Rossiter took care of sending flowers for us. Paul will probably get the job at the Coop [Yale].

  Our old friend Zevin reports that BATTLE FOR ASIA will probably be a very big seller for them. He is making it his headline feature for the fall. While he was in a good mood about all this I sold him LAST MAN AROUND THE WORLD. He is coming up this afternoon to sign the contract and, by that time, I hope to find something else around that I can unload upon him.

  Harry Maule says the new Maritta Wolff book has terrific possibilities. I won’t read it until he has cut it down a couple of hundred pages or so.

  You will get six copies of ATTACK just as soon as they are ready. Looks like we may have something really big in that book.

  We have decided to give PARIS a shot in the arm by trying out one of those 10% free book promotions. The first day’s response was orders for 1000 each from Baker and the News Company, and 250 from Macy. Zowie.

  ONLY THE STARS ARE NEUTRAL is off to a really good start and the Benson is moving too. The enclosed ad should knock you for a loop. Sally, incidentally, was in to see me yesterday for the first time since her return and was all friendship and cream puffs. She never even mentioned the mixup over the play edition of JUNIOR MISS.

  I hear that Graystone is footch. I also hear that the Doubleday plan for selling the plant to Sperry has hit a snag and is likely to fall through.

  …

  Gene Reynal got into the Navy and leaves in a few weeks. Mait Edey has just gotten his commission as Second Lieutenant in the Air Force and is off for Biloxi, Miss.

  The eyes of the sporting world are on Rips 54th Street Tennis Court, where at 5 o’clock this afternoon the extremely nebich combination of Commins and Kreiswirth will undoubtedly be crushed under the smashing volleys of Mr. and Mrs. Bennett A. Cerf.

  Fred Melcher gave a luncheon yesterday for about 60 publishers to enlarge your old War Council. Mention was made of the fact that you were off in the army. The vote to enlarge the work of the committee was a 64 to 1 in favor. I need hardly tell you that the guy who voted nay very loudly was old Alfie Knopf. He said he thought the whole business was a God damn waste of time. Between ourselves, I have a hunch that Alfie’s got something there!

  Leah Daniels has decided to retire and be a housewife. I am trying to persuade Frances Merriam to take the job. I will let you know more about this next week.

  I guess that’s about all. All of us are working like hell, but it seems to agree with us.

  Love,

  Bennett

  June 23, 1942

  Dear Cerfie—

  Klopfer has been assigned for two days
to Squadron 47, 180 nice little pilot cadets, and promptly was made O.D. here. He had just taken his little boys to mess and about to see that they are nicely tucked in, but at 10 o’clock. What a grand bunch of youngsters they are. If I can’t get a good job in Intelligence I am almost hoping to be a Squadron Commander with these cadets. They’re really right out of the top drawer, most of them from the Middle West, very young, very eager and quite intelligent. It might be fun wet nursing them thru’ their preliminary training. But I forgot I’m back in the work business. They’re doing a 600 page training manual out here and want it privately printed so Klopfer has been called in as an expert, and in comparison with these dopes I am. But I don’t want to be thrown into that job completely. I’d still like to go to Harrisburg but I’ll know my next assignment Monday as I’m out of school this Saturday. Expect a beautifully engraved diploma. This week I’ve been alternately getting printing quotations from Los Angeles and pulling a Colt 45 apart. I can get it apart but there are usually a few parts left over when I put it together. Wait until I get at a machine gun.

  If the British pull many more Tobrucks I’ll really see active service. I can’t understand it and I can’t believe there’s any valid cause. By the time you receive this I’m sure Savestopol will have fallen and then the trouble will really begin.

  Thanks so much for all the business information. How about a little of the bad news. Things can’t be going as well as you insinuate. Have they been throwing many Victory Marches back? How’s the old cash position? Will they ever sell enough books to pay off that loan? And tell Abe to send me the monthly statements. I’m really not complaining Cerfie, I’m just lonesome for the life I’ve led for 17 years, the language I’ve spoken in that time and the friends that are so dear to me.

  Pat and Tony* arrived safely. We’re living in a little apartment in Laguna Beach. Mrs. K. is doing the cooking and damned well, too, and, when I get home, it’s very nice.…

  I’m having a lot of fun here but it doesn’t look as tho’ I’ll get to India with a Combat Squadron. Fix it for me, please.

  My love to all Bob, Saxe, Lew—my beautiful Pauline—and all and family. Kiss Phyllis and Chris for me.

  Love,

  Donald

  Who’ll replace Leah [Gadlow] and the youngsters upstairs?

  June 23, 1942

  Dear Klopf:

  Stung by the derisive concluding sentence of your last letter, “no book club choice?” I swung my 88mm guns yesterday at Harry Scherman, Meredith Wood and Harry Abrams, and think I’ve got them reasonably well sold on the use of THE WISDOM OF CHINA AND INDIA for a future book dividend. They fished out their own records on the sale of the little Confucius volume in the Modern Library and, when they saw that it was exceeded only by OF HUMAN BONDAGE and A FAREWELL TO ARMS, the flag of Random House began to flap victoriously in the breeze. The deal isn’t closed yet by a hell of a long shot but, from now on, I will worry them into it if I possibly can. My motto is “If a finger-breaking schlemiel like Klopfer can sell them Proust, Cerf ought to be able to sell them the great thinkers of the Orient!” I will keep you posted.

  Business continues very brisk on PARIS. It is still first in the Tribune surveys and we’ve crossed the 35,000 mark. In fact, it is safe to say we are pretty close to 40,000. Meanwhile, Quent’s book is really off with a bang. Peggy Byrnes and George were at the house last night for dinner. Peg says it is selling faster at Macy’s than any other book in the department at the moment. They sold 50 copies on Saturday and Monday! We are printing a new edition, bringing the total printed to 15,000, and the outlook couldn’t be brighter. ST. LOUIS is over 7000 and still moving, but it hasn’t got the zoom of the other two. CLARK GIFFORD is out today and I think it is absolutely hopeless, and I won’t spend more than $100.00 in advertising. In fact, I may not spend a cent on it. The same goes for THUNDERBIRDS. We’ll sell our 2000 copies (in addition to the 2000 to Fox) and forget about it. Bob is working hard on ATTACK and so is Saxe. We may have a real dark horse in this one.

  The total May figures are as follows: M.L., $19044.43; M.L.G., $13074.80, R.H., $46,000 ($25,000 for June 1941).

  The figures up to June 17th are: M.L. and M.L.G., $19,000 ($16,000 for June 1941); R.H., $46,000 ($25,000 for June 1941).

  I wish we had more cash in the joint but, outside of that, everything is hunky dory and I really think that, with all of us watching the new printings like hawks, we are going to save an awful lot of money along this line in the months to come.

  I am terribly anxious to hear what the future holds in store for you. Saturday will mark the close of your four-week period, and I hope that you will soon know where you are booked for next. Please write the very minute you find out.

  The news from Libya is certainly discouraging. John Gunther was at the house last night with Bubbles [Leonora Hornblow], but couldn’t contribute any new facts for our enlightenment. Have I told you that Cecil Brown has landed the coveted five-minute news spot occupied by Elmer Davis? That won’t hurt our book. Incidentally, the title of the Brown book has been changed to FROM SUEZ TO SINGAPORE. Do you like it?

  I have been talking with Dan Longwell about that old plan for a Life book of war photographs. Wolff’s estimate, however, for a 320 page book comes to about $1.10 a copy. To that we have to add a goodly sum for an editor and, all in all, the total investment would not be under $25,000.00. The Book-of-the-Month Club was very cold on the idea of using this book as a dividend and we have accordingly decided to turn the whole thing down flat. I am writing Longwell that we’ll be interested when the war is actually over, but that if he wants to go ahead with one now, he will have to give it to another publisher. I am sure you will approve of this course.

  The inter-office tennis matches on Friday produced some spirited competition. Thrup and I trimmed Jezebel and Saxe, but when Abe replaced Saxe we went down to inglorious defeat. Jez and Thrup looked magnificent on the court until a familiar-looking female began playing on the adjoining court. Her name was Alice Marble. Even Jezebel’s incredible conceit collapsed in the face of a menace like this!

  I hope that you’ve got a nice apartment at Laguna and that Pat is seeing enough of you to make her trip worth while. Write as often as you can and remember that everybody here loves you very much.

  As ever,

  Bennett

  June 26, 1942

  Dear Donald:

  We were all deeply interested to hear that you are back at the old routine of getting printed quotations. My hunch is that you will turn out such a good job on this particular project that you will probably end up by producing the Congressional Record. After you have read a couple of issues of that, you will know something, my boy!

  You ask for some of the bad business news along with the good. Honest Injun, Klopfer, there isn’t any bad news at the moment except our cash position, which I presume is a reasonably familiar problem to you. At the present moment, we have accounts payable of $60,000, notes payable of $66,000. The latter figure includes $35,000 to the bank, $15,000 to ourselves and $16,000 in trade acceptances. Against that we have cash of only $11,000. The accounts receivable is between $130,000 and $140,000. This situation will probably get a little worse between now and September, but we are watching things very carefully and I don’t think the adverse balance will grow alarmingly. From September on we really should right ourselves very quickly.

  …

  We are being absolutely ruthless about taking on new projects for next year. Every time I see the length of our Fall list, I froth at the mouth, but that is water under the bridge now and the only thing we can do is to really live up to our resolutions in the future. This I promise you faithfully will be done.

  Very few of the VICTORY MARCH are bouncing back. It hasn’t been a sensation anywhere, but everybody seems to realize that it is the time of year and not the book and they all are willing to string along until the Fall, when they think they will really go to town with the book. The sales chart shows 2463 copies for June up to
the 22nd, making the total just a few hundred over the 50,000 mark. Under the circumstances, I think it is a great showing, and since we were smart enough not to reprint, we are sitting pretty. The June 22nd total on the card for PARIS is 34,000. This week will show about 3000 more. MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS is up to 7500 with about 400 added this week. ONLY THE STARS, by the end of this week, will be around the 10,000 mark. It will be 11th on the Tribune best seller chart week after this. PARIS falls to second on that chart, but it is a photo finish. On the second string, PAN AMERICAN SPANISH is rapidly approaching the 5000 mark. The first 22 days of June we sold 388 STORM, bringing the total up to 26,000. GREEK DRAMA is nudging the 15,000 mark (427 in the first three weeks of this month!). A CHILD’S BOOK OF PRAYERS goes on its merry way with over 600 this month and a total of almost 26,000. KEEPER OF THE FLAME is around 3300 and will probably die there. As you know, Grosset have this title for the Fall.

  Zevin, as I think I told you, has taken LAST MAN AROUND THE WORLD and will probably add one or more other titles of ours later on. Doc Lewis [bookseller] has earmarked PRESCRIPTION FOR MURDER and AIR FORCE GIRL.

  …

  I am having Ernst Reichl design the whole WISDOM FOR CHINA AND INDIA and will have dummies to send to the Book-of-the-Month Club in about a week’s time. We will also soon expect to get dummies of that JANE EYRE–WUTHERING HEIGHTS BOM dividend. We may be able to work out a special deal with Monroe Greenthal of United Artists on the Jane Eyre half of the dividend. That would be pure gravy, of course.

  The final profit, after Martin Podoll got finished with his handiwork, was just over $2000.00. The terrific mark-off in inventory, a goodly part of which was absolutely necessary and not optional, shows where too much of our money has been going.

  Georgie Opp called me up frantically at 2 o’clock this morning to tell me how anxious he is to get into some branch of service where, to quote him, he will be in danger. He says he’d like to have about twelve men under him and do a propaganda short somewhere in the firing line. It was all I could do to keep from laughing over the phone. George really is the world’s greatest ass at times like this. I promised to speak to Lynn Farnol for him, but the mere thought of Oppenheimer in charge of a group of men at the front is enough to make me want to conclude a separate peace of my own with Japan.