Madeleine B. Stern (1912–2007)

Miss Rostenberg and Miss Stern were an amazing couple. They met in the early '30s, teaching Sabbath School, and became partners in life and in the rare book business. I wonder how many young women today have any conception how difficult their path was. Feminists, scholars, entrepreneurs, unmarried, in a world where women were expected to be none of those things, they lived, in the words of the New York Times obituary of Miss Rostenberg, "in a universe in which it was not possible to live the show more way she wanted to. She simply ignored that impossibility, created her own universe and, in a small but exquisite way, changed the world."

Between them, they wrote or edited upwards of thirty books, and innumerable sale catalogues. This book is rather special, though. Here, they describe books that they have bought and sold over the years, but these are all books with special meaning for one or the other or both. For Leona, who had been told by a college professor not to set her sights too high because she was "a woman and a Jew", and who was distantly related to Alfred Dreyfus, finding Émile Zola's pamphlet, "L'Affaire Dreyfus. Lettre A La Jeunesse", was a dramatic reminder of intolerance. Madeleine, who is, of course, best known for her work editing collections of Louisa May Alcott's potboilers, writes of the acquisition of the first edition of one of Alcott's earliest works, Flower Fables (stories she created for Ralph Waldo Emerson's daughter, Ellen).

There is the book that they never sold, the 1591 Parma imprint of Angeli Bonventura's La Historia della Citta di Parma, with a binding embossed with the arms of George Carew, Earl of Totnes, a book Leona had lusted for ever since she had apprenticed with the antiquarian bookseller, Herbert Reichner. And there is the book they never wrote, a proposed biography of Belle da Costa Greene. The proposal was rejected, as Anne Haight was in the process of writing a biography. In fact, that biography never appeared, though Haight did write a biographical entry on Greene for Notable American Women. (There is now a biography of Greene, Heidi Ardizzone's An Illuminated Life, which I have previously reviewed.

What books have gone through their hands! What places they have scoured and found! What stories they have to tell! To find a copy of the first Hebrew edition of Theodore Herzl's Der Iudenstaat (the book that inspired the Zionist movement) is one thing. To find it on Erev Rosh Ha-shanah is quite another.

I could go on and on about these connections, the serendipitous finds, the books that escaped only to be found again, but you might as well read the book, enjoy the stories, and marvel at the full and fulfilled lives of Miss Rostenberg and Miss Stern.

Madeleine B. Stern (from the New York Times)
Leona Rostenberg (also from the New York Times) show less

A collection of wonderful short little pieces on books and authors handled by the great Rostenberg & Stern. Their delight in the books comes through loud and clear, and makes for a very pleasant morning's reading.

“Old Books, Rare Friends” is the story of two remarkable women who became antiquarian booksellers and experts but most of all, who became and stayed true friends for their entire lives. I fell head over heels in love with these two through the course of this autobiography/memoir which took each from their early childhoods through their halcyon days as their rare book business expanded and grew, and finally to old age with their curiosity and enthusiasm as fresh as when they were young. show more

Leona Rostenberg charted her own course through her doctoral studies, refusing to follow the path urged upon her by her thesis supervisor (who sabotaged her, in the end). She felt the influence of early printers had shaped the society of their respective eras and set out to prove it, researching in Strasbourg before the Second World War. This research would provide the basis for a profound knowledge of printing houses, the books they produced and the authors they fostered. Leona was possessed of that instinct dubbed “Finger-Spitzengefül”, a kind of tingling in the fingers which tells you that you are about to discover something rare and wonderful.

Madeleine Stern became a biographer (her first about Margaret Fuller) with a propensity for detailed and painstaking research. She discovered that Louisa May Alcott had had a secret life as a writer of “blood and thunder” novels which paid her and enabled her to provide support for her family. She succeeded in getting a Guggenheim fellowship so that she could research Alcott on a full-time basis and eventually broke through the secret identity to reveal Alcott’s alternative pen name, astonishing the academic world which had previously overlooked the clues. With their eye for detail and their Sherlockian instincts, they were perfect candidates to become expert at finding rare and difficult to find books.

Their deep love for each other informs every page of this book, making their work and explorations a joy. Hardworking, energetic, extraordinarily intelligent and perceptive, these two appear to have left the book lovers’ world a better place for their having been here. A charming book by two delightful characters. How I wish I could have known them! show less

This was a very interesting account of the literary sleuthing lives of two remarkable women. Underlying their mutual love of old and rare books was so much knowledge of world history, literature, languages and art that I was often more impressed by their ability to know what they had discovered than by the treasure itself. Imagine picking up a 16th century volume of sermons by Martin Luther, seeing the woodcut portrait on the title page, and having the mental historical resources to suspect show more that this might be the earliest portrait of Luther in existence.
In addition to being internationally respected collectors and sellers of antiquarian books, the authors were both prolific writers. Rostenberg and Stern each had their own areas of specialization, but they also often collaborated on books about their trade in general, and their own experiences in it in particular. Leona Rostenberg researched and wrote throughout her life on the history of publishing and printing. Madeleine Stern became widely known as an authority on the literary "double life" of Louisa May Alcott, editing several collections of Alcott's so-called "blood and thunder" pot-boiler stories, which she tracked down in their original publications in an endeavor quite worthy of Sherlock Holmes.
February 2009 show less