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.

Bookends - A New Musical about Old Friends

I just discovered those two old and dear friends, Rostenberg and Stern this year. They were 2 Jewish women who refused to do what tradition said - which was to get married and raise a family, and leave the menfolk to do the business. Instead they got together and started their own Rare Books Business and ran it for over 50 years. They produced dozens of catalogues, and also did a large amount of Bibliophilic scholarly research.

Madeleine Stern discovered Louisa May Alcott's pseudonym under which she (Alcott) wrote a number of "racy" novels, that were totally different from the Little Women & Little Men series. Stern died earlier this year. Leona Rostenberg wrote a few books about the history of printing in Europe. She died in 2005.

I also heard something about a musical based on their lives. Well I finally found some information about the Musical. It was produced and performed by the New Jersey Repertory Company. it's called BOOKENDS and it received some good reviews.

I wonder if this musical will ever come to Canada. Maybe I might suggest it to the local theatre company. Because I for one would LOVE to see it.

Old Books in the Old World - by Rostenberg & Stern

Old Books in the Old World
By Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern.
Oak Knoll Press 1996

This is a diary of Rostenberg and Stern's buying trips to England and Europe in the decade immediately following World War 2. It's not written in narrative, but as a diary. The ladies kept journals for those years (1947 - 1957), and excerpts of their diaries are printed, along with updates (or Retrospects as they are called).


In 1947 the first year they went to Europe, the ladies sailed to England by boat. The trip took 7 days from Hoboken (Across the Hudson River from NYC - in New Jersey I think) to Southampton, England. I'm not familiar with any of the English Antiquarian Bookshops - except one. Marks and Co at 84 Charing Cross Road. But there was no mention of Frank Doel. The ladies also took another boat to Calais, and then to Paris where they purchased more books. Later on the same trip, they also went to Strasbourg, Basle and The Hague.

In later years Misses Rostenberg & Stern visited London regularly, also Oxford, Cambridge, Vienna, Milan, Zurich, Florence, Geneva and Brussels. In 1954 the ladies FLEW to London for the first time. That trip took just seventeen hours rather than seven days. But then they went back to taking the boat.

Even after 1957, they still made the trip every summer, but they no longer recorded the shops they visited or the books they purchased. By then they were so well known, they were being welcomed everywhere they went. Prices were also rising as well.

This book is not for reading like a novel, since it's not a narrative. You have to be a real Bibliographic fan to read all the book titles and various phrases in French and German. It would have been helpful to have a small language glossary at the back. Otherwise it was a good book.

Oh yes, and this is my third and last book for the Bibliography Challenge. I will continue reading other books about books (I have quite a few), but I need to work on the Canadian Challenge before the New Year and all the New Challenges start LOL.

RIP Madeleine B Stern

This just in from Philobiblos.
An announcement from Eric Holzenburg at the Grolier Club that just came across the lists:

"Madeleine B. Stern, surviving partner in the antiquarian book firm Rostenberg & Stern, and co-author with the late Leona Rostenberg of a number of memoirs of their life in rare books, died peacefully at home on Saturday after a brief illness. She was 95 years old.

For those of you in the New York area who may wish to pay their respects, a memorial service will be held to[day], Tuesday, August 21, at Campbell Funeral Chapel, 1076 Madison Ave. (at 79th Street), at 11 am."

Another great member of the biblio-universe gone to their rest. Philobiblos will post a full obituary soon.

And if you want to read the review I wrote about one of their books - you can click here. Rostenberg & Stern have inspired me to perhaps become a bibliographer. How I am going to accomplish this, I haven't figured out yet. But right now I am recuperating, so it can wait.

My First Decision as a Bibliographer and Collector

And here's the Beginning of my New life as a Bibliographer. I have decided that I will collect and write about Bibliography. BOOKS ABOUT BOOKS. Books about Book collecting, Manuscripts, Libraries, Illumination, Book Binding, Rare Books, Bibliographies and so on. That will be my genre.

I already have all 5 of Nicholas Basbanes books, so thats a start. So I think I will start off with - Basbanes and Stern/Rostenberg plus John Dunning, and the Goldstones.

Rostenberg & Stern issued at least 84 catalogues (maybe more) for more than 40 years. I would like to document the catalogues that Stern & Rostenberg issued, maybe collect them if possible. And record everything else that Stern & Rostenberg ever wrote, including books, lectures and articles. Write a Bibliography for Rostenberg & Stern. (see below)

The Changing Rare Book Trade (PDF)

A Lecture on Louisa May Alcott by Madeleine Stern at Brigham Young University, March 1991 (PDF)

And I just found a lovely interview with Leona & Madeleine recorded in 1997.
City Arts Uncut Interview

I also have a number of books about the Shakespeare authorship debate. I'd like to write a bibliography on all the books that have been and are being written about the Shakespeare authorship question. It will be identifying those novels and biographies that support Shakespeare as the author, and those that support someone else.

See my Blog BiblioShakespeare

Oh yes, and eventually record everything on a Bibliography webpage - like this one.
A Bibliography for Book Collectors