Friends And Partners

 In A Literary Life

By Jan Howard

Anyone who has enjoyed the love and care of a true friend will enjoy meeting authors Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern. Their long-time friendship and business partnership is the subject of their newest book, Bookends, which they will discuss on Sunday, October 14, at 2 pm at the C.H. Booth Library on Main Street.

Bookends includes memories of their lives, enduring friendship, and reflections on a changing world. The book has been described as a chronicle of the cultural changes of 20th Century American life.

In Bookends, the authors reflect on their family backgrounds, pet dogs, business adventures, men they did not marry, their mothers, and approach to aging, among other topics. They look at the joys of a personal and business relationship that began in the 1940s.

“Friendship, if not the greatest thing in the world, is one of the greatest,” said Ms Stern in a recent interview.

Together Ms Stern and Ms Rostenberg wrote about the history of their book selling days, Old Books, Rare Friends, that was published in 1997 by Doubleday. Bookends is the result of that earlier book, Ms Stern said.

“Old Books, Rare Friends was very successful,” Ms Stern said. “The success of the first book led to the second. We’re used to collaborating.

“We have a pile of fan letters from the first book, some saying the one thing wrong about the book was that it ends. They said, ‘What more can you tell us?’”

“People wanted to know more about our youth, the time we lived in,” Ms Rostenberg said. “Life was more formal then. If a woman went abroad alone, you were put at a separate table. You were not allowed to mingle with men. Today, the relationship of the sexes is more intimate, more honest. Women were not as independent, but we thought we were very emancipated.

 “Bookends has more personal details about our lives,” she said. “We’re baring our souls more. We discuss the trials and interests of young people. It’s about our hopes and problems as adolescents. It’s an honest book.”

Ms Rostenberg said there are many career women today, but years ago teaching was the chosen career if a woman was not married.

“I did not want to teach. It was a little daring what I was doing. We knew what we wanted. Madeleine was more independent than I. Looking back, I’m amazed at what I did. I was very much Mama’s little girl.”

Because of their common interests, Ms Rostenberg said she and Ms Stern “were naturally drawn to each other.”

 In writing Bookends, Ms Stern said she and Ms Rostenberg considered what was omitted from the first book, what would be amplified in the second, and what would be of interest to readers. Throug h the book readers can gain insight into a true, nonsexual relationship between two women, Ms Stern said.

“It is a true friendship, one of caring for each other and wanting to continue being with each other.”

“[Readers] can gain the idea that women can have a career, be courageous, and can break into different worlds,” Ms Rostenberg said.

Ms Stern said one of the secrets to their long friendship is that they were never jealous of each other.

“We wanted each other to advance,” she said. “We would not be bothered by minor abrasions, by little things that might bother someone else. We care for each other, to prosper in every way, and learn from each other.”

Ms Stern said she and Ms Rostenberg, while not opposites, have experienced changes in their individual natures as they aged.

“Leona, who once was not very sure of herself, is now very sure of herself. I’m less sure of myself. There have been gradual changes.”

“We had common interests, we loved the same things,” Ms Rostenberg said. “We were sympathetic to each other’s needs. We loved our lives together. We had concerns for each other and share the excitement of doing research together. Our family backgrounds were similar, and we could discuss mutual concerns.”

The authors, who live in New York City, have been in the rare book business for more than 50 years. At a time when most women were housewives, if married, and teachers, if single, Ms Stern and Ms Rostenberg were the minority in a business dominated by men. Ms Stern said, however, they did not encounter a great deal of prejudice.

“There was a macho male attitude. It didn’t bother us too much, but it was there. There are more women involved now,” she said.

In their writings and verbally, they reflect a passion for the written word and regret today’s younger generation’s fascination with television and computers. Ms Stern said there is a major difference in the culture of today from that of the past, especially in the type of books that are collected.

“Three-quarters of the book collectors today are interested in modern verse instead of the classics or early books on science and art,” she noted. “We’ve learned something from every book we’ve handled.”

Ms Stern lamented the change in the antiquarian book world that once required knowledge of Latin and Greek and interest in early printed books of a classical tradition.

 “Young people then were more highly educated or differently educated than today,” Ms Stern said. “There was more information on other languages.”

“Reading is so minimized today,” Ms Rostenberg said. “Children cling to television after school and computers. They don’t read books. Most young people are careless about scholarship. Academic programs are very casual today.”

“We had to know Latin,” she said. “It broadens your whole progress in life.”

Ms Stern and Ms Rostenberg continue their rare book business as well as their collaboration on books.

Ms Stern, who wrote a biography of Louisa May Alcott, in 1945 joined the rare book business Ms Rostenberg had formed the prior year. It was through research at Harvard University’s Houghton Library that they unearthed information about Louisa May Alcott’s pseudonymous blood-and-thunder stories.

“Leona let out a whoop,” Ms Stern said. It turned out that she had found a batch of five letters from a Boston publisher publishers revealing the information that Louisa May Alcott had used the pseudonym of A.M. Barnard to write thrillers.

“We had her pseudonym, titles of stories, and magazines,” Ms Stern said. “We were told, however, that much of the material was in safe keeping for the duration. Many people had suspected she had written under a pseudonym.”

The duo later found the stories in 19th Century periodicals. Eventually half a dozen collections of Louisa May Alcott’s anonymous stories were edited by Ms Stern. This changed the nature of her reputation, Ms Stern said.

“She was not just a children’s friend. This made her a much more interesting writer than what you would think from the Little Women series.”

Ms Stern is the author of 14 books, including biographies of Margaret Fuller and Louisa May Alcott. She has a book coming out in the spring about the reform movements of the 19th Century. Ms Rostenberg is a former president of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America. She has published five books on 17th Century printing and publishing in England. Together they have co-authored nine books. Bookends can be purchased at local bookstores.