Book Ends Book Review

Book Ends - Two Women, One Enduring Friendship.
By Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern
Simon & Schuster 2001
My copy - Large Print Edition by Thorndike Press 2001

For those of you who have been reading this blog for a while, will know that I discovered a love for bibliography last year when I read Rostenberg and Stern's book Old Books Rare Friends. Well, now I have another of their books - my third biography. Actually its the 4th book if you also count Louisa May Alcott volume I have of her dark stories that Madeleine edited. This book Bookends was published in 2001 and consists of autobiographical short stories. Some areas are detailed, others are not.

The Contents list is very interesting.

Beginnings - This is their childhood and family background. Very interesting.
Self Searching - Education and searching for a career.
The Men we did not Marry - self explanatory.
Mothers - They talk about their relationships with their own mothers.
Two Book Women in a Man's World - How they got started as book sellers, including the trips to Europe after the war, to buy books. Very very interesting.
Our Changing Book World - the impact the internet had on their business. Also mentions the book people they met and the play written about them, also called Bookends. Again very interesting.
Our Canine Succession - Over the 50 years these two ladies worked together, they had a succession of dogs. I am not a dog lover, so I skipped this chapter.
Aging Together - Self Explanatory.

Madeleine Stern died just last year.
Leona Rostenberg died in 2005.