Bookends: Two Women, One Enduring Friendship - Hardcover

Rostenberg, Leona; Stern, Madeleine B.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0786235632 ISBN 13: 9780786235636

Publisher: Thorndike Pr, 2001

Synopsis

Bookends: Two Women, One Enduring Friendship [hardcover] Rostenberg, Leona,Stern, Madeleine B. [Oct 01, 2001]

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Rostenberg and Stern, rare-book dealers, single Jewish women and lifelong friends, continue the story begun in Old Books, Rare Friends with this inspiring, moving chronicle of a friendship and moving personal account of the 20th century. The authors, now nearing their 90s, describe their battles and victories in the changing world. In "The Men We Did Not Marry," the authors list their early boyfriends (lawyers and doctors, an older teacher, a misogynist, a commitment-phobe and so on); Stern ends with, "My six men were six reasons I would never marry.... I was still a single woman in a man's world." Instead, they made a home together in a house "filled with light and love, with warmth and air." The pair witnesses the emergence of a younger clientele less well-versed in classics than the previous generation. They describe their European "book-hunt" in 1947, before postwar rebuilding occurred "we had seen... one of the most cataclysmic of changed worlds" and, at the end of the 20th century, they track industry and broader cultural changes by, for instance, the sale of a rare book for an astonishing $12,000 on eBay (the authors had made what they thought was a fair bid of $960). "Bookends is not only the title of this book. It is our very nature. Bookends support books and come in pairs. And that is the life we have led," proclaim the dauntless friends. As they near the end of their long, distinguished and energetic lives, Stern and Rostenberg know that the world as they've known it is also ending. But throughout their story, they remain convinced that, just as their partnership has endured, so will the printed word.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

This book responds to those who, after reading the author's Old Books, Rare Friends by Rostenberg (New Worlds in Old Books) and Stern (Louisa May Alcott, LJ 9/15/98), wanted to know more about the personal lives of this octogenarian pair of rare-book dealers. Partners in the male-dominated antiquarian book business in New York since 1940, these women chronicle their unique, platonic friendship and business relationship. They detail their early lives, educations, and experiences abroad in alternating chapters, filling in the gaps from their previous memoir. Their important discovery of Louisa May Alcott's pseudonymously written thrillers is only mentioned briefly, the earlier volume having dealt with it in detail. Especially poignant is their account of the changing antiquarian book scene and their attempt to keep up with it, Internet and all. While they acknowledge the constraints age has put on their activities, they celebrate the joy they have found in each other. While approaching their nineties, these women have not lost the writing skills that have enabled them to write some 20 works on books and publishing. Their engaging prose keeps our interest as we learn about these two rare friends and their passion for books. Recommended for larger public libraries. Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Thorndike Pr
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0786235632
• ISBN 13: 9780786235636
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 248