New York, NY —May 6, 2026— “It took twenty-three years,” WMG member Gayle Feldman announced to the crowd as she hoisted her magnum opus, NOTHING RANDOM: Bennett Cerf and the Publishing House He Built, a biography of the Random House co-founder that has earned the distinction of a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice.

Feldman, who spent her entire career in the book business, realized she could tell the story of 20th century publishing through Cerf’s life, but more significantly, she saw how she could relay the larger narrative of publishing’s interplay with the entire entertainment industry – Broadway, Hollywood, and television – through that same pivotal figure.

In an intimate, Women’s Media Group members-only event, the veteran journalist and WMG 2025 Rise Fund recipient discussed the history of and hidden figures in publishing with industry leader Madeline McIntosh, co-founder of Authors Equity and former U.S. CEO of Penguin Random House.

Feldman reveals Cerf to be a remarkable and fascinating figure. A high school drop-out, Cerf eventually made his way to Columbia University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa. He worked in Wall Street before landing his first job in publishing. Three weeks in, Cerf proclaimed that within ten years, he aimed to be one of the greatest publishers in the country. Precisely ten years later his proclamation came true.   

Cerf without question remade the book business, but perhaps not exactly in the way recorded by history. In the deeply researched account drawing from more than 200 interviews, archival documents, and Cerf’s extensive diary collection, which he kept from the age of 17 until he died, Feldman presents a more nuanced picture. During the discussion, she shared with Women’s Media Group members the details of the women conspicuously absent from the history.

“Women worked in publishing forever,” Feldman said, “but they were often not acknowledged.” She noted that women could be receptionists and eventually work their way up to copy editors or managing editors, but sometimes they continued to maintain some of their receptionist duties.

It wasn’t only women in junior positions taking on dual roles who were instrumental in building the industry. Phyllis Cerf, Bennett Cerf’s second wife, who was, interestingly, the first cousin of Ginger Rogers, initially helped Cerf in writing his own books. Later, she became an influential force at Random House when Cerf’s author, Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss, wrote The Cat in the Hat in response to the public outcry over kids not learning how to read. It was Phyllis’s idea to start a series modeled on Geisel’s early reader. She called it Beginner Books.

Then there was Blanche Wolf Knopf. “Blanche was essential,” Feldman said, explaining that she was responsible for bringing aboard many of the greatest authors Knopf published.

Beyond these notable figures, women in the field discovered opportunities in niche areas that men either found uninteresting or deemed unimportant. “Those spaces,” McIntosh noted, “ended up having a huge commercial impact.” 

Categories such as children’s books, cookbooks, and mysteries along with roles in publicity and rights were largely overlooked by the powers in publishing (men), and women filled the void to great success. 

Editor Lee Wright, for example, was a crucial figure in developing mysteries as a popular and profitable genre. She was behind the immensely popular Ellery Queen series at Simon & Schuster, and later at Random House, was responsible for publishing the classic psychological horror novel Rosemary’s Baby.

“There were power structures that were keeping things very much the same,” McIntosh noted, “but this is an industry that has gone through more change than people really recognize, and women in many cases have seen those moments of change as points of opportunity.”  

Feldman agreed, stating that at this time of massive upheaval, she hoped the women in the room would be an integral part of moving the business forward. She envisioned women leading the charge and returning back to earlier business practices, lost over decades of mergers and corporatization, of personal connection.  

“Women are a very essential part of publishing,” Feldman concluded. As someone who has covered the industry over the past four decades and penned a 1000-page history on the topic, Feldman, herself, has become an essential part of the story, as well.

Pictured: Gayle Feldman (L) and Madeline McIntosh (R).