Picture of author.

Bennett Cerf (1898–1971)

Author of The Best Short Stories of O. Henry

100+ Works 5,162 Members 47 Reviews 6 Favorited

About the Author

Bennett Cerf was born in 1898, in Manhattan. He was educated at Columbia University. In 1925 he acquired the Modern Library with Donald Klopfer, providing the foundation for their next publishing venture, Random House. A major figure of American publishing for more than four decades, Cerf died in show more 1971. show less
Image credit: Courtesy of the NYPL Digital Gallery (image use requires permission from the New York Public Library)

Series

Works by Bennett Cerf

The Best Short Stories of O. Henry (1945) — Editor; Introduction — 605 copies
24 Favorite One Act Plays (1958) — Editor — 284 copies
More Riddles (1961) 193 copies
Sixteen Famous American Plays (1777) — Editor — 185 copies
Great Modern Short Stories (1900) 178 copies
Try and Stop Me (1944) 149 copies
An Anthology of Famous American Stories (1953) — Editor — 137 copies
Famous Ghost Stories (1944) — Editor — 134 copies
Sixteen Famous British Plays (1942) — Editor — 112 copies
Thirty Famous One-Act Plays (1943) — Editor; Foreword, some editions — 110 copies
Riddles and More Riddles! (1960) 103 copies
The Life of the Party (1956) 85 copies
Bedside Book of Famous American Stories (1936) — Editor — 71 copies
The Bedside Book of Famous British Stories (1940) — Editor — 66 copies
Great German Short Novels and Stories (1933) — Editor — 59 copies
Four Contemporary American Plays (1961) — Editor — 51 copies
Reading for Pleasure (1957) — Editor — 51 copies
The Laugh's on Me (1959) 47 copies
An Anthology of Famous British Stories (1952) — Editor — 46 copies
Plays of Our Time (1967) — Editor — 43 copies
Three famous murder novels (1941) — Introduction — 43 copies
Laugh Day (1965) 42 copies
Stories Selected from The Unexpected (1948) — Editor — 39 copies
Good for a Laugh (1952) 39 copies
Shake Well Before Using (1948) 32 copies
Laughter Incorporated (1950) 29 copies
Riddle De-Dee (1962) 25 copies
Anything for a Laugh (1946) 23 copies
Bennett Cerf's Houseful of Laughter (1963) — Editor — 18 copies
Silliest Pop-Up Riddles (1966) 18 copies
The Sound of Laughter (1970) 18 copies
Pocket Book of Modern American Plays (1942) — Editor — 15 copies
Modern American Short Stories (1945) — Editor — 15 copies
The Pocket Book of Cartoons (1943) — Editor — 13 copies
Fifteen Famous European Plays (1942) — Editor — 10 copies
Bennett Cerf's best jokes (1959) 4 copies
Little Riddles 2 (1984) 4 copies
Little Riddles 1 (1984) 3 copies
Bennett Cerf's New Laughs (1961) 2 copies
Riddles 1 copy
Famous Ghost Stories (1946) 1 copy

Associated Works

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) — Editor, some editions — 9,947 copies
The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights (2001) — Editor, some editions — 1,783 copies
The Arabian Nights, Volume 1 (1991) — Editor, some editions — 672 copies
Fun Fare: A Treasury of Reader's Digest Wit and Humor (1948) — Contributor — 106 copies
The Fireside Treasury of Modern Humor (1963) — Contributor — 5 copies
The Bathroom Reader (1946) — Editor; Contributor — 3 copies

Tagged

1001 (67) 1001 books (87) 20th century (150) Agatha Christie (233) anthology (203) British (129) British literature (79) classic (142) classics (235) crime (297) crime fiction (142) detective (217) detective fiction (64) drama (145) ebook (82) England (142) English (58) English literature (70) fantasy (86) fiction (1,286) folklore (67) Hercule Poirot (325) humor (430) jokes (63) literature (175) Modern Library (110) murder (130) murder mystery (89) mystery (1,492) novel (143) own (67) plays (117) Poirot (262) read (161) riddles (66) series (67) short stories (308) theatre (58) to-read (668) unread (80)

Common Knowledge

Members

Reviews

An Anthology, carefully containing all the big sellers of the previous decades and ignoring any interesting asides.
½
 
Flagged
DinadansFriend | 1 other review | Feb 3, 2024 |
Amusing stories, though I believe my grandparents found it much more amusing than I did. A lot of the reference/ jokes to do with spouses was very much of the "I hate my wife, lol" sorry if humour that I think was very popular as a trope among boomers but that I personally find quite cringe. Still, if you can firmly keep this book in the context of its own tone and culture, it has many funny moments
 
Flagged
LadyLast | 2 other reviews | Oct 11, 2023 |
Mr Cerf was a popular humour writer of the 1950's and early 1960's. I wanted to amuse myself, and to learn what was considered funny inmain stream america.
 
Flagged
DinadansFriend | 1 other review | Oct 4, 2023 |

Lists

Awards

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Van H. Cartmell Editor, Foreword
O. Henry Contributor, Author
Ring Lardner Contributor
William Saroyan Contributor, Playwright
Susan Glaspell Contributor
Oscar Wilde Contributor
Dorothy Parker Contributor
George S. Kaufman Contributor, Playwright
Eugene O'Neill Contributor, Playwright
Marc Connelly Contributor, Playwright
Ambrose Bierce Contributor, Author
Noël Coward Contributor
John Galsworthy Contributor
Irwin Shaw Contributor
Lord Dunsany Contributor, Author
Saki Author, Contributor
Ernest Hemingway Contributor
William Faulkner Contributor
Carl Rose Illustrator
W. W. Jacobs Contributor, Author
Thornton Wilder Contributor, Playwright
Clifford Odets Contributor, Playwright
Roy McKie Illustrator
A. A. Milne Contributor
Anton Chekhov Contributor
Thomas Wolfe Contributor
Edith Wharton Contributor
Owen Johnson Contributor
Thomas Beer Contributor, Author
Sarah Orne Jewett Contributor
Erskine Caldwell Contributor
Jack London Contributor
Willa Cather Contributor
James Thurber Contributor
Moss Hart Playwright, Contributor
Lillian Hellman Playwright, Contributor
A. E. Coppard Contributor, Author
Frank Norris Contributor
Booth Tarkington Contributor
Fitz James O'Brien Contributor
Lafcadio Hearn Contributor
John Dos Passos Contributor
Conrad Aiken Contributor
Christopher Morley Contributor
Hamlin Garland Contributor
Katharine Brush Contributor
Frank R. Stockton Contributor
George Ade Contributor
Gertrude Atherton Contributor
Edna Ferber Contributor
Sherwood Anderson Contributor
Theodore Dreiser Contributor
Gertrude Stein Contributor
Stephen Crane Contributor
Harvey O'Higgins Contributor
Herman Melville Contributor
Henry James Contributor
Mark Twain Contributor
Washington Irving Contributor
Oliver Goldsmith Contributor
Rudyard Kipling Author, Contributor
Montague Rhodes James Author, Contributor
Algernon Blackwood Author, Contributor
S. N. Behrman Playwright
Budd Schulberg Contributor
John O'Hara Contributor
Isak Dinesen Author, Contributor
J. M. Barrie Contributor
Arnold Bennett Contributor
Arthur Schnitzler Contributor
Eudora Welty Contributor
John Steinbeck Contributor
George Kelly Contributor
Terence Rattigan Contributor
Jean Giraudoux Contributor
Arthur Miller Contributor
Lucille Fletcher Contributor
Lady Gregory Contributor
Tennessee Williams Contributor
Oliphant Down Contributor
William Inge Contributor
Emlyn Williams Contributor
Max Beerbohm Contributor
James Stephens Contributor
Thomas Burke Contributor
Roland Pertwee Contributor
George Meredith Contributor
Arthur Kober Playwright
Russel Crouse Playwright
Samuel Spewack Playwright
Brooks Alkinson Introduction
Sidney Kingsley Playwright
Ben Hecht Playwright
Howard Lindsay Playwright
Clare Boothe Playwright
John Collier Author, Contributor
John Dryden Contributor
David Garrick Contributor
William Wycherley Contributor
John Vanbrugh Contributor
William Congreve Contributor
John Gay Contributor
George Farquhar Contributor
Thomas Otway Contributor
Cecil A. Moore Introduction
Francis Bret Harte Contributor
Edgar Allen Poe Contributor
Mary E. Wilkins Contributor
J. D. Salinger Contributor
Laurence Housman Contributor
Rudolf Besier Contributor
William Archer Contributor
John Mason Brown Introduction
Mordaunt Shairp Contributor
R. C. Sherriff Contributor
Sutton Vane Contributor
J. B. Priestley Contributor
Edward Knoblock Contributor
Arthur Wing Pinero Contributor
Lawrence Langner Contributor
Anatole France Contributor
Richard Watts, Jr. Introduction
Rupert Brooke Contributor
Alice Gerstenberg Contributor
August Strindberg Contributor
Holworthy Hall Contributor
Stanley Houghton Contributor
Robert Middlemass Contributor
Lord Dunsany Contributor
Lady Gregory Contributor
Philip Moeller Contributor
James M. Barrie Contributor
Lewis Beach Contributor
Austin Strong Contributor
Helen R. Hull Contributor
Dorothy Canfield Contributor
Ruth Suckow Contributor
Edgar Allan Poe Contributor
Bret Harte Contributor
C. E. Montague Contributor
May Edginton Contributor
William Mudford Contributor
E. Bulwer Lytton Contributor
Thomas Malory Contributor
Samuel Lover Contributor
Weston Martyr Contributor
William John Locke Contributor
Leonard Merrick Contributor
Ralph Bates Contributor
Bliss Perry Introduction
Martin Ross Contributor
Walter Scott Contributor
Morley Roberts Contributor
L. A. G. Strong Contributor
Stacy Aumonier Contributor
Charles Dickens Contributor
Elizabeth Gaskell Contributor
John Brown Contributor
Aldous Huxley Contributor
Hugh Walpole Contributor
P. G. Wodehouse Contributor
George Moore Contributor
Thomas Hardy Contributor
Henry Williamson Contributor
Joseph Conrad Contributor
Liam O'Flaherty Contributor
Geoffrey Chaucer Contributor
Arthur Conan Doyle Contributor
Alfred Noyes Contributor
John Masefield Contributor
Sheila Kaye-Smith Contributor
W. H. Hudson Contributor
H. G. Wells Contributor
D. H. Lawrence Contributor
E. M. Forster Contributor
Evelyn Waugh Contributor
Anthony Trollope Contributor
John Buchan Contributor
James Joyce Contributor
Joseph Addison Contributor
Michael Arlen Contributor
Eden Phillpotts Contributor
E. Somerville Contributor
Donn Byrne Contributor
Ian Maclaren Contributor
H. M. Tomlinson Contributor
Philip Gibbs Contributor
Daniel Defoe Contributor
Arthur Morrison Contributor
G.K. Chesterton Contributor
Jacob Wassermann Contributor
Hermann Sudermann Contributor
E. T. A. Hoffmann Contributor
Heinrich Heine Contributor
Gottfried Keller Contributor
Theodor W. Storm Contributor
Wilhelm Grimm Contributor
Gerhart Hauptmann Contributor
Arnold Zweig Contributor
Thomas Mann Contributor
Stefan Zweig Contributor
Jacob L. Grimm Contributor
Elmer Rice Contributor
S. J. Perelman Contributor
Harlan Miller Contributor
Mac Hyman Contributor
Stephen Leacock Contributor
Fred Allen Contributor
Patrick Dennis Contributor
Truman Capote Contributor
E. B. White Contributor
Saul Levitt Contributor
Richard Sherman Contributor
Lorraine Hansberry Contributor
Thor Heyerdahl Contributor
William Brinkley Contributor
Frank O'Connor Contributor
Ray Bradbury Contributor
Gilbert C. Klingel Contributor
Rachel L. Carson Contributor
Paddy Chayefsky Contributor
Richard Connell Contributor
Maurice Herzog Contributor
Heywood Broun Contributor
Aline Bernstein Contributor
Ben Ames Williams Contributor
Alan Beck Contributor
James A. Michener Contributor
Stephen Potter Contributor
Roald Dahl Contributor
Art Buchwald Contributor
J. A. Hunter Contributor
T. H. White Contributor
John P. Marquand Contributor
F. Tennyson Jesse Contributor
V. S. Pritchett Contributor
Thomas Heggen Contributor
A. E. W. Mason Contributor
E. C. Bentley Contributor
Francis Iles Contributor
Arnold Roth Illustrator
Roger Price Illustrator
Walt Kelly Illustrator
Damon Runyon Contributor
Richard Wright Contributor
Mary McCarthy Contributor
Albert Maltz Contributor
Bessie Breuer Contributor
George Abbott Contributor
Edward Chodorov Contributor
George M. Cohan Contributor
John Chapman Contributor
William Gillette Contributor
Patrick Hamilton Contributor
Avery Hopwood Contributor
John Willard Contributor
Jeffrey Dell Contributor
Philip Dunning Contributor
Bayard Veiller Contributor
Roi C. Megrue Contributor
Henrik Ibsen Contributor
Doug Anderson Illustrator
Eskil Eriksson Translator
Debbie Palen Illustrator
John Anderson Introduction

Statistics

Works
100
Also by
6
Members
5,162
Popularity
#4,820
Rating
4.0
Reviews
47
ISBNs
93
Languages
4
Favorited
6

Charts & Graphs