Stern, Madeleine B(ettina) 1912-

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STERN, Madeleine B(ettina) 1912-

PERSONAL: Born July 1, 1912, in New York, NY; daughter of Moses R. and Lillie (Mack) Stern. Education: Barnard College, A.B., 1932; Columbia University, M.A., 1934. Religion: Jewish.

ADDRESSES: Office—Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern Rare Books, 40 East 88th St., New York, NY 10128-1176.

CAREER: High school English teacher in New York City, 1934-43; writer, 1942—; Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern Rare Books, New York City, partner, 1945—.

MEMBER: Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America, Modern Language Association, American Printing History Association, Manuscript Society, Authors League, International League of Antiquarian Booksellers, Phi Beta Kappa.

AWARDS, HONORS: Guggenheim fellowship, 1943-45; Medalie Award, Barnard College, 1982; American Printing History Association Award (with Leona Rostenberg), 1983; Distinguished Alumna Award, Barnard College, 1997.

WRITINGS:

The Life of Margaret Fuller, Dutton (New York, NY), 1942, 2nd edition, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1991.

Louisa May Alcott, University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK), 1950, 2nd edition, 1971; Northeast University Press (Boston, MA), 1996.

Purple Passage: The Life of Mrs. Frank Leslie, University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK), 1953, 2nd edition, 1970.

Imprints on History: Book Publishers and American Frontiers, Indiana University Press (Bloomington, IN), 1956.

We the Women: Career Firsts of Nineteenth-Century America, Schulte (New York, NY), 1963, revised edition, University of Nebraska Press (Norman, OK), 1994.

So Much in a Lifetime: The Story of Dr. Isabel Barrows (juvenile), Messner (New York, NY), 1964.

Queen of Publishers' Row: Mrs. Frank Leslie (juvenile), Messner (New York, NY), 1965.

The Pantarch: A Biography of Stephen Pearl Andrews, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 1968.

Heads and Headlines: The Phrenological Fowlers, University of Oklahoma Press (Norman, OK), 1971.

(With Leona Rostenberg) Old and Rare: Thirty Years in the Book Business, Schram (New York, NY), 1974, revised edition published as Old and Rare: Forty Years in the Book Business, Modoc Press (Santa Monica, CA), 1988.

Books and Book People in Nineteenth-Century America, Bowker (New York, NY), 1978.

(With Leona Rostenberg) Between Boards: New Thoughts on Old Books, Allanheld & Schram (Montclair, NJ), 1978, 2nd edition, Modoc Press (Santa Monica, CA), 1989.

(With Leona Rostenberg) Bookman's Quintet: Five Catalogues about Books, Oak Knoll Press (New Castle, DE), 1980.

Sherlock Holmes: Rare-Book Collector, Paulette Greene (Rockville Centre, NY), 1981.

A Phrenological Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Americans, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1982.

The Game's a Head: A Phrenological Case-Study of Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle, Paulette Greene (Rockville Centre, NY), 1983.

Antiquarian Bookselling in the United States: A History from the Origins to the 1940s, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1985.

Nicholas Gouin Dufief of Philadelphia, Franco-American Bookseller, 1776-1834, Philobiblon Club, 1988.

(With Leona Rostenberg) Quest Book—Guest Book: A Biblio-Folly, Modoc Press (Santa Monica, CA), 1993.

Studies in the Franco-American Booktrade during the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries, Pindar Press (London, England), 1994.

(With Leona Rostenberg) Connections: Our Selves—Our Books, Modoc Press (Santa Monica, CA), 1994.

The Feminist Alcott: Stories of a Woman's Power, Northeastern University Press (Boston, MA), 1996.

(With Leona Rostenberg) Old Books in the Old World: Reminiscences of Book Buying Abroad, Oak Knoll Press (New Castle, DE), 1996.

(With Leona Rostenberg) Old Books, Rare Friends: Two Literary Sleuths and Their Shared Passion, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1997.

Louisa May Alcott: From Blood and Thunder to Hearth and Home, Northeastern University Press (Boston, MA), 1998.

(With Leona Rostenberg) New Worlds in Old Books, Oak Knoll Press (New Castle, DE), 1999.

(With Leona Rostenberg) Books Have Their Fates, Oak Knoll Press (New Castle, DE), 2001.

(With Leona Rostenberg) Bookends: Two Women, One Enduring Friendship, Free Press (New York, NY), 2001.

(With Leona Rostenberg) From Revolution to Revolution: Perspectives on Publishing and Bookselling, 1501-2001, Oak Knoll Press (New Castle, DE), 2002.

L.M. Alcott: Signature of Reform, Northeastern University Press (Boston, MA), 2002.

(With Leona Rostenberg) Detection and Discovery, Oak Knoll Press (New Castle, DE),2003.

Contributor of introduction to The Journals of Louisa May Alcott and Selected Letters of Louisa May Alcott, edited by Joel Myerson and Daniel Shealy, University of Georgia Press (Athens, GA), 1997. Contributor of articles on nineteenth-century American literature and Americana to scholarly journals.

EDITOR

Women on the Move, four volumes, DeGraaf, 1972.

The Victoria Woodhull Reader, M & S Press, 1974.

Louisa's Wonder Book: An Undiscovered Alcott Juvenile, Central Michigan University (Mt. Pleasant, MI), 1975.

Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott, Morrow (New York, NY), 1975.

Plots and Counterplots: More Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott, Morrow (New York, NY), 1976.

Publishers for Mass Entertainment in Nineteenth-Century America, G. K. Hall (Boston, MA), 1980.

Critical Essays on Louisa May Alcott, G. K. Hall (Boston, MA), 1984.

Louisa May Alcott, A Modern Mephistopheles [and] Taming a Tartar, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1987.

(Coeditor) A Double Life: Newly Discovered Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1988.

(Coeditor) Freaks of Genius: Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott, Greenwood Press (Westport, CT), 1991.

From Jo March's Attic: Stories of Intrigue and Suspense, Northeastern University Press (Boston, MA), 1993.

Louisa May Alcott Unmasked: Collected Thrillers, Northeastern University Press (Boston, MA), 1995.

Also associate editor of The Selected Letters of Louisa May Alcott, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1987; The Journals of Louisa May Alcott, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1989; and Louisa May Alcott: Selected Fiction, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1990.

SIDELIGHTS: As a rare book dealer, Madeleine B. Stern specializes in sixteenth-, seventeenth-, and eighteenth-century volumes, published in French, Italian, Latin, and English; as a writer, she specializes in nineteenth-century Americana. Stern once commented, "This dichotomy may lead to a split individuality, but it also leads to a very exciting life." She and her longtime friend and business partner Leona Rostenberg have traveled throughout the world, researching, purchasing, and reselling historically important books. Stern and Rostenberg, together and individually, have published dozens of books, including important scholarly studies on publishing, biographies and studies of women authors, and memoirs of their own careers and lives. Together Stern and Rostenberg are known as "an institution" in the world of antiquarian books.

Betsy Lerner, an editor of Doubleday at the time, thinking that the general public of book lovers might enjoy hearing about the exciting world of antiquarian books, asked Stern and Rostenberg to write a joint memoir. Old Books, Rare Friends: Two Literary Sleuths and Their Shared Passion was the result. Employing their reminiscences, letters, and diaries, the two tell, in alternating chapters, of their lives as business partners and friends. They both recount the ins and outs of the book business, in which they have been singularly successful women in a male-dominated profession. They tell of finding rare treasures, of Rostenberg's discovery that Louisa May Alcott had published pseudonymous thrillers, of Stern's founding of the first Antiquarian Book Fair in the United States in 1960, and of Rostenberg's rise to the presidency of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America in 1972.

Readers and reviewers alike enjoyed the memoir, which became a surprise bestseller and "irresistible to anyone in love with books," wrote Margot Peters of the New York Times Book Review. A Christian Science Monitor reviewer described the work as a "charming joint autobiography," and in Looking at Books, the online bulletin of the Connecticut Libraries, Vince Juliano remarked that "it is Leona and Madeleine's fascination with the book business that will most engage the reader." Booklist's GraceAnne A. DeCandido praised the authors for their "elegant writing and limpid descriptions" as well as their numerous anecdotes, depiction of their relationship, and explanations of the rare-book business. Writing in the San Francisco Chronicle, Patricia Holt commended the autobiography: "The rare-book world is so technical and arcane that few can describe it successfully, let alone passionately. But Rostenberg and Stern have a mission in life 'to make rare books understandable, desirable, a part of modern life.' Thanks to their gift for opening up this world, we never want to leave it."

Stern and Rostenberg received many letters from readers of Old Books, Rare Friends, praising the book and asking to know more. The duo responded with Bookends: Two Women, One Enduring Friendship, in which they fill in the gaps of the previous memoir, again writing in alternating chapters. "Bookends is not only the title of this book," Stern and Rostenberg wrote. "It is our very nature. Bookends support books and come in pairs. And that is the life we have led." Reviewers again responded favorably. "Their engaging prose keeps our interest as we learn about these two rare friends and their passion for books," wrote Nancy R. Ives in her Booklist review. "Their fortitude and feistiness in their chosen—and once indubitably—male profession will inspire and delight," predicted Booklist's GraceAnne A. DeCandido.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

AB Bookman's Weekly, June 1, 1998, review of Louisa May Alcott: From Blood and Thunder to Hearth and Home, p. 1470.

American Literature, December, 1998, review of Louisa May Alcott: From Blood and Thunder to Hearth and Home, p. 923.

Booklist, June 1, 1995, Denise Perry Donavin, Louisa May Alcott Unmasked: Collected Thrillers, p. 1717; June 1, 1997, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of Old Books, Rare Friends: Two Literary Sleuths and Their Shared Passion, p. 1630; April, 1998, Donna Seaman, review of Louisa May Alcott: From Blood and Thunder to Hearth and Home, p. 1297; May 15, 2001, GraceAnne A. DeCandido, review of Bookends: Two Women, One Enduring Friendship, p. 1714.

Children's Literature, 1996, Elizabeth Lennox Keyser, review of Louisa May Alcott: Contradictions and Continuities, pp. 205-206.

Choice, July-August, 1995, J.J. Benardete, review of The Lost Stories of Louisa May Alcott, p. 1725.

Christian Science Monitor, February 23, 1995, Kim Campbell, review of Louisa May Alcott Unmasked, p. B4; July 2, 1997, Marilyn Gardner, review of Old Books, Rare Friends, p. 14; August 14, 1997, review of Old Books, Rare Friends, p. 14.

Journal of American Studies, August, 2000, Joanna Gill, review of Louisa May Alcott: From Blood and Thunder to Hearth and Home, pp. 342-343.

Library Journal, April 15, 1995, Henry L. Carrigan, Jr., review of Louisa May Alcott Unmasked, p. 118; May 1, 1996, Henry Carrigan, Jr., review of The Feminist Alcott: Stories of a Woman's Power, p. 94; June 1, 2001, Nancy R. Ives, review of Bookends, p. 163.

New York Times Book Review, June 22, 1997, Margot Peters, "Women of Letters," review of Old Books, Rare Friends, p. 9.

Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, March, 1996, Christopher Todd, review of Studies in the Franco-American Booktrade during the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries, pp. 111-112.

Publishers Weekly, May 12, 1997, review of Old Books, Rare Friends, p. 65; July 28, 1997, Elizabeth Bernstein, "Old Books, Rare Friends Charms Its Way onto Bestseller Lists," pp. 23-24; June 4, 2001, review of Bookends, p. 69.

Times Literary Supplement, June 2, 1995, Janet Beer Goodwyn, review of We the Women: Career Firsts of Nineteenth-Century America, p. 24; November 10, 1995, Jonathan Keates, review of Louisa May Alcott Unmasked, p. 40; August 28, 1998, Gail Marshall, review of Louisa May Alcott: From Blood and Thunder to Hearth and Home, p. 25.

Women's Studies International Forum, November-December, 1999, Louise Sladen, review of Louisa May Alcott: From Blood and Thunder to Hearth and Home, p. 689.