Madeleine B. Stern

Madeleine Bettina Stern (July 1, 1912 – August 18, 2007), born in New York, New York, was an independent scholar and rare book dealer. She graduated from Barnard College in 1932 with a B.A. in English literature. She received her M.A. in English literature from Columbia University in 1934. Stern was particularly known for her work on the writer Louisa May Alcott. She received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1943 to write a biography of Alcott, which was eventually published in 1950. In 1945, she and her friend Leona Rostenberg opened Rostenberg & Stern Books. Rostenberg and Stern were active members of the Antiquarian Booksellers' Association of America, at a time when few women were members.^[1] The pair lived and worked in Rostenberg's house in the Bronx. They were known for creating unique rare book catalogs.^[2] In 1960, Stern helped found the New York Antiquarian Book Fair.^[3]

Stern and Leona Rostenberg became widely known in the late 1990s while in their late eighties when their memoir on the rare book trade, "Old Books, Rare Friends" became a best seller.

Books by Madeleine B. Stern

• The Life of Margaret Fuller, 1942.
• Louisa May Alcott, 1950 (revised editions published in 1971 and 1996).
• Purple Passage: The Life of Mrs. Frank Leslie, 1955 (revised edition, 1970).
• Imprints on History: Book Publishers and American Frontiers, 1956.
• We the Women: Career Firsts of Nineteenth-Century America, 1963.
• So Much in a Lifetime: The Story of Dr. Isabel Barrows, 1964.
• Queen of Publishers' Row: Mrs. Frank Leslie, 1965.
• The Pantarch: A Biography of Stephen Pearl Andrews, 1968.
• Heads and Headlines: The Phrenological Fowlers, 1971.
• Books and Book People in Nineteenth-Century America, 1978.
• Sherlock Holmes: Rare-Book Collector, 1981.
• A Phrenological Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Americans, 1982.
• The Game's a Head: A Phrenological Case-Study of Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle, 1983.
• Antiquarian Bookselling in the United States: A History from the Origins to the 1940s, 1985.
• Nicholas Gouin Dufief of Philadelphia, Franco-American Bookseller, 1776–1834, 1988.
• Studies in the Franco-American Booktrade during the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries, 1994.
• The Feminist Alcott: Stories of a Woman's Power, 1996.
• Louisa May Alcott: From Blood & Thunder to Hearth and Home, 1998.

Books co-authored by Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine B. Stern

• Old and Rare: Thirty Years in the Book Business, 1974.
• Between Boards: New Thoughts on Old Books, 1978.
• Bookman's Quintet: Five Catalogues about Books: Bibliography, Printing History, Booksellers, Libraries, Presses, Collectors, 1979.
• Quest Book—Guest Book: A Biblio-Folly, 1993.
• Connections: Ourselves—Our Books, 1994.
• Old Books in the Old World: Reminiscences of Book-buying Abroad, 1996.
• Old Books, Rare Friends: Two Literary Sleuths and Their Shared Passion, 1997.
• New Worlds in Old Books, 1999.
• Books Have Their Fates, 2001.
• Bookends: Two Women, One Enduring Friendship, 2001.
• From Revolution to Revolution: Perspectives on Publishing and Bookselling 1501-2001, 2002.

Books edited by Madeleine B. Stern

• Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott, 1975.
• Plots and Counterplots: More Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott, 1976 (in paperback, A Marble Woman, 1976).
• Louisa's Wonder Book-An Unknown Alcott Juvenile; With an Introduction and Bibliography, 1975.
• A Double Life: Newly Discovered Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott, 1988.

and others.

External links

• Madeleine B. Stern Papers at Brigham Young University
• Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine B. Stern Papers at Columbia University

References