Education
Williams College.
publisher founders of American
Williams College.
Klopfer was the quiet inside businessman to Cerf"s quite-visible and gregarious "Mr. Outside" personality. Klopfer"s step-father was a diamond cutter in Newark, and Klopfer was working there when Cerf called to offer him a half interest in a publishing business in return for a $100,000 investment.
They increased the series" popularity, and in 1927 began publishing general trade books which they had selected "at random." Thus began their publishing business, which in time they named Random House.
Cerf"s talent in building and maintaining relationships brought contracts with such writers as William Faulkner, John O"Hara, Eugene O"Neill, James Michener, Truman Capote, Theodor Seuss Geisel, and others Cerf retired in 1970, with Klopfer succeeding him as Chairman, only to retire himself in 1975.
Before his death Klopfer was awarded an honorary degree by Williams College in spite of never having completed his degree requirements. Klopfer"s first wife died in 1971, and a decade later Klopfer married the well-known writer and Democratic political activist Katie Louchheim.
Klopfer died at Lennox Hill Hospital in New York, New York, on May 30, 1986, aged 84.
Random House published a book of collected World World War II letters titled Dear Donald, Dear Bennett: the wartime correspondence of Donald Klopfer and Bennett Cerf which is still in print as of 2013.