Collections : [Rare Book & Manuscript Library]

Correspondence, manuscripts, memorabilia, photographs, phonograph and tape recordings, and printed files. Included are Cerf's personal correspondence files, 1929-1945, and the diaries and scrapbooks which he maintained from his school days throughout his active career. The diaries, in date-book format, contain terse notes on Cerf's meetings with authors and friends, on his travels and publishing activities; the scrapbooks contain correspondence and photographs, as well as memorabilia and printed items, and were annotated by Cerf and his wife, Phyllis Fraser Cerf Wagner. Also in the collection are manuscripts and proofs for Cerf's books including "The Laugh's on Me""Treasury of Atrocious Puns""The Sound of Laughter""Stories to Make You Feel Better", and "At Random: the Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf", which was edited by Phyllis Cerf Wagner and Albert Erskine, 1977. The papers also include condolence letters written at the time of Cerf's death, photographs and photo albums,certificates and awards, and miscellaneous printed material, including Random House and Modern Library catalogues. Among the major correspondents are: Truman Capote, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Edna Ferber, Moss Hart, J. Edgar Hoover, Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon B. Johnson, John Lindsay, Joshua Logan, John O'Hara, Jacqueline Onassis, Richard Rodgers, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Gertrude Stein, Adlai Stevenson, Harry Truman, and Robert Penn Warren

Records of the Citizens Committee for the Protection of the Environment (CCPE) include correspondence, memoranda, reports, statements, notes, news releases, U.S. Atomic Energy/Nuclear Regulatory Commission hearing records, and printed material. The correspondence contains letters from supporters, members of other environmental groups, New York State legislators, U.S. senators and congressmen, scientists, and CCPE's attorney for the Indian Point hearings. Chief correspondents of the group are Larry Bogart, Executive Director, Dr. George Candreva, President, and Irene P. Dickinson (Mrs. Leon A.), Executive Secretary and Coordinator, whose file these are. There are numerous letters from Congressmen John G. Dow, Richard Ottinger, and Peter Peyser. The cataloged correspondence contains three letters from Senator Jacob K. Javits, and one each from Senator Edmund S. Muskie, Senator Margaret Chase Smith, and Louis J. Lefkowitz, New York State Attorney General.