Books Have Their Fates

by Madeleine B. Stern, Leona Rostenberg

Two of New York's most legendary antiquarian dealers have put pen to paper again and traced the fates of 30 unique books. Both authors scanned the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries looking for boks with interesting narratives. Each book selected has it own dramatic experience, origin and destiny.

This collection of essays brings to life a cast of characters such as Shakespear, Descartes, Shelly, Poe, George Eliot, and many others.

Genres: Books About Books

198 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2001

About the author

Madeleine Bettina Stern 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. The pair lived and worked in Rostenberg's house in the Bronx. They were known for creating unique rare book catalogs. In 1960, Stern helped found the New York Antiquarian Book Fair.
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.

Reviews

[Lora · Rating 2 out of 5]

As other reviews say, this book is not as story oriented as it is biliographic oriented. In other words, any of these short accounts in here will be mostly focused on who wrote/published a particular folio or whatever in what year, then who owned it, then who inherited it, then who might have read it as they were over visiting the other guy, and then how sales through the centuries eventually led the book into the hands of these two very intelligent authors, and a bit of their reflection/ reaction. It's not anecdotal so much as a slightly dry family history line of book ownership. Having said that, the accounts do reflect on the historical context of the books in these accounts, and I did glean some interesting facts/ideas along the way. However, I was more interested in by-the-fireside anecdotes, myself.
What can I say- I roam through the subjective realm of my mind with wild abandon.

[Gewbook · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was not what I had hoped it would be. Much more bibliographical than anecdotal. Disappointing.