Gayle Feldman is a journalist who has covered the book publishing industry for decades for Publishers Weekly and The Bookseller, among many other publications. Her new book is Nothing Random: Bennett Cerf and the Publishing House He Built, published by Random House with legendary editor Bob Loomis. In this episode, Gayle traces Bennett Cerf’s improbable arc from Jewish Harlem to Columbia University to Wall Street and finally to the founding of Random House.

She tells the stories behind some of the most consequential moments in American publishing history: the legal battle to publish James Joyce’s Ulysses, the creation of The Cat in the Hat and Beginner Books, the publication of Portnoy’s Complaint, and more from the early days of Random House.

Photo credit: Michael Lionstar