Happy 95th, Madeleine B. Stern! (Rare book dealer & Louisa May Alcott biographer)
leno...@yahoo.com
http://www.lib.udel.edu/ud/spec/findaids/stern.htm
(brief bio)
http://www.biblio.com/author_biographies/2006446/Madeleine_B_Stern.html
(some covers and book descriptions)
http://images.google.com/images?svnum=10&hl=en&gbv=2&q=madeleine+stern+author
(covers & a few photos)
On "Louisa May Alcott: A Biography":
"First published in 1950, this biography of Louisa May Alcott
(1832-1888) remains the standard work on the beloved American writer.
Madeleine B. Stern, one of the world's leading Alcott scholars, shows
how the breadth of Alcott's work, ranging from Little Women to
sensational thrillers and war stories, serves as a reflection of a
fascinating and complicated life dotted with poverty and riches alike,
hard menial work, physical suffering relieved by opiates, and the
acclaim of literary success."
http://216.239.51.104/search?q=cache:sOOvLEO0j90J:www.lib.byu.edu/lectures/alr/Stern/1991.pdf+madeleine+stern+%22alice+louise%22&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
(Stern's 1991 lecture: "Louisa May Alcott at Brigham Young
University" - the other link is www.lib.byu.edu/lectures/alr/Stern/1991.pdf
)
She had a very long friendship and literary partnership with the late
Leona Rostenberg (they felt the need to make it clear, in the
introduction to the 1997 book "Old Books, Rare Friends: Two Literary
Sleuths and Their Shared Passion" that they were not a couple.
Description: "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." )
http://www.thirteen.org/cityarts3/show9/uncutp.html
(interview with Stern & Rostenberg - includes photo - excerpt: "You've
been referred to as the Holmes and Watson of booksellers. I want to
talk to you about the discovery of the book and that concept.")
In "Contemporary Authors": "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.' "
AWARDS
"Guggenheim fellowship, 1943-45; Medalie Award, Barnard College, 1982;
American Printing History Association Award (with Leona Rostenberg),
1983; Distinguished Alumna Award, Barnard College, 1997." (She also
attended Columbia University.)
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."
Lenona.
Jim
Happy birthday, and thanks!