Good for a Laugh

Bennett Cerf grew up privileged, the son of an heiress to a tobacco-distribution fortune. Seems fitting he went into publishing I suppose. He started Random House, which published James Joyce’s Ulysses after winning a landmark censorship case. The book was considered a literary masterpiece, but obscene as defined by the laws of the time. Ulysses is a favorite of my favorite author’s, Robert Anton Wilson, of The Illuminatus! Trilogy fame. It’s also Timothy Leary’s. Cerf also published Atlas Shrugged despite being vehemently opposed to the book’s philosophy. I think it’s cool that despite the disagreement, he became lifelong friends with Ayn Rand, the book’s author. These days too many people seem unable to get along with such fundamental differences. Here’s a Heineken video on the subject: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wYXw4K0A3g

On a lighter note, the name Bob McConnell is written inside this book safe, so as always, if that’s the name on your account, I’ll make the price 20% lighter. Now that’s something we can all agree on.