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Madeleine Bettina Stern (July 1, 1912 – August 18, 2007), born in New York, New York, 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.[1] The pair lived and worked in Rostenberg's house in the Bronx. They were known for creating unique rare book catalogs.[2] In 1960, Stern helped found the New York Antiquarian Book Fair.[3]
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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.
- The Life of Margaret Fuller, 1942.
- Louisa May Alcott, 1950 (revised editions published in 1971 and 1996).
- Purple Passage: The Life of Mrs. Frank Leslie, 1955 (revised edition, 1970).
- Imprints on History: Book Publishers and American Frontiers, 1956.
- We the Women: Career Firsts of Nineteenth-Century America, 1963.
- So Much in a Lifetime: The Story of Dr. Isabel Barrows, 1964.
- Queen of Publishers' Row: Mrs. Frank Leslie, 1965.
- The Pantarch: A Biography of Stephen Pearl Andrews, 1968.
- Heads and Headlines: The Phrenological Fowlers, 1971.
- Books and Book People in Nineteenth-Century America, 1978.
- Sherlock Holmes: Rare-Book Collector, 1981.
- A Phrenological Dictionary of Nineteenth-Century Americans, 1982.
- The Game's a Head: A Phrenological Case-Study of Sherlock Holmes and Arthur Conan Doyle, 1983.
- Antiquarian Bookselling in the United States: A History from the Origins to the 1940s, 1985.
- Nicholas Gouin Dufief of Philadelphia, Franco-American Bookseller, 1776–1834, The Philobiblon Club, 1988, ISBN 0-9620-7730-5.
- Studies in the Franco-American Booktrade during the Late 18th and Early 19th Centuries, 1994.
- The Feminist Alcott: Stories of a Woman's Power, 1996.
- Louisa May Alcott: From Blood & Thunder to Hearth and Home, 1998.
- Old and Rare: Thirty Years in the Book Business, 1974.
- Between Boards: New Thoughts on Old Books, 1978.
- Bookman's Quintet: Five Catalogues about Books: Bibliography, Printing History, Booksellers, Libraries, Presses, Collectors, 1979.
- Quest Book—Guest Book: A Biblio-Folly, 1993.
- Connections: Ourselves—Our Books, 1994.
- Old Books in the Old World: Reminiscences of Book-buying Abroad, 1996.
- Old Books, Rare Friends: Two Literary Sleuths and Their Shared Passion, 1997.
- New Worlds in Old Books, 1999.
- Books Have Their Fates, 2001.
- Bookends: Two Women, One Enduring Friendship, 2001.
- From Revolution to Revolution: Perspectives on Publishing and Bookselling 1501-2001, 2002.
- Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott, 1975.
- Plots and Counterplots: More Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott, 1976 (in paperback, A Marble Woman, 1976).
- Louisa's Wonder Book-An Unknown Alcott Juvenile; With an Introduction and Bibliography, 1975.
- A Double Life: Newly Discovered Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott, 1988.
and others.
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