Fred Asher Rosenstock (1895–1986) born Selig Usher Rosenstock in 1895 in Biala Potok in Galicia then a province of
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
in the foothills of the
Carpathian MountainsThe Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the largest mountain range in Europe...
was a prominent bookseller,
bookA book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
and
artArt is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture, and paintings...
collectorA collectable or collectible is typically a manufactured item designed for people to collect. In this respect, they are distinguishable from other subjects of collections, which may also include natural objects and objects manufactured for purposes other than collecting...
and
publisherPublishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information – the activity of making information available for public view...
in
Denver, ColoradoThe City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the state of Colorado, in the United States. Denver is a consolidated city-county located in the South Platte River Valley on the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
from the 1920s through the 1970s. His family
emigratedEmigration is the act of leaving one's native country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state, is termed migration. There are many reasons why...
to
AmericaThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1904. The family lived in
Rochester, New YorkRochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. The Rochester metropolitan area is the second largest economy in New York State, behind the New York City metropolitan area. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and...
.
During
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
Fred moved to Washington, DC and worked both as a civilian and later in the
US ArmyThe United States Army is the branch of the United States Military responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military and is one of seven uniformed services...
as a
stenographerA secretary is an administrative assistant in business office administration.The executive secretary has a myriad of administrative duties. Traditionally, these duties were mostly related to correspondence, such as the typing out of letters...
.
After the war he worked for a
billboardA billboard is a large outdoor advertising structure , typically found in high traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertisements to passing pedestrians and drivers...
company, but became ill.
Fred Asher Rosenstock (1895–1986) born Selig Usher Rosenstock in 1895 in Biala Potok in Galicia then a province of
AustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.3 million people in Central Europe. It borders both Germany and the Czech Republic to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west...
in the foothills of the
Carpathian MountainsThe Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians are a range of mountains forming an arc roughly long across Central and Eastern Europe, making them the largest mountain range in Europe...
was a prominent bookseller,
bookA book is a set or collection of written, printed, illustrated, or blank sheets, made of paper, parchment, or other material, usually fastened together to hinge at one side. A single sheet within a book is called a leaf, and each side of a leaf is called a page...
and
artArt is the process or product of deliberately arranging elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression, including music, literature, film, sculpture, and paintings...
collectorA collectable or collectible is typically a manufactured item designed for people to collect. In this respect, they are distinguishable from other subjects of collections, which may also include natural objects and objects manufactured for purposes other than collecting...
and
publisherPublishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information – the activity of making information available for public view...
in
Denver, ColoradoThe City and County of Denver is the capital and the most populous city of the state of Colorado, in the United States. Denver is a consolidated city-county located in the South Platte River Valley on the High Plains just east of the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains...
from the 1920s through the 1970s. His family
emigratedEmigration is the act of leaving one's native country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state, is termed migration. There are many reasons why...
to
AmericaThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
in 1904. The family lived in
Rochester, New YorkRochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. The Rochester metropolitan area is the second largest economy in New York State, behind the New York City metropolitan area. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and...
.
During
World War IWorld War I , also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All Wars, was a global military conflict which involved most of the world's great powers, assembled in two opposing alliances: the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance...
Fred moved to Washington, DC and worked both as a civilian and later in the
US ArmyThe United States Army is the branch of the United States Military responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military and is one of seven uniformed services...
as a
stenographerA secretary is an administrative assistant in business office administration.The executive secretary has a myriad of administrative duties. Traditionally, these duties were mostly related to correspondence, such as the typing out of letters...
.
After the war he worked for a
billboardA billboard is a large outdoor advertising structure , typically found in high traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertisements to passing pedestrians and drivers...
company, but became ill. He was advised to move to a dry, desert climate such as California. He went west but never got past Denver.
Fred had been interested in books from his youth, and by the time he was in Washington was a collector haunting the book shops and building a small
collection. In Denver he continued collecting and in 1922 opened his first bookstore, the Denver Book Shop, an antiquarian book store. It was not a success. Later after marrying Frances Goodman in 1928 he purchased an existing book store in a good location on 15th Street in Denver and renamed it the Bargain Book Store. He continued to collect and sell rare books but the main business of the Bargain Book Store was selling school textbooks. This line got the business through the
great depressionThe Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. The store burned in 1948 and was rebuilt.
Meanwhile Fred continued his interest in rare books developing an interest in western history. By 1960 he began liquidating his general book business and in 1962 opened Fred A. Rosenstock, Books on East
Colfax AvenueColfax Avenue is the main street that runs east and west through the Denver-Aurora metropolitan area in Colorado. As U.S. Highway 40, it was one of two principal highways serving Denver before the Interstate Highway System was constructed. In the local street system, it lies 15 blocks north of the...
in Denver specializing in western history. Fred had also developed an interest in western art and had collected many of the
paintingPainting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . In art, the term describes both the act and the result, which is called a painting. Paintings may have for their support such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, clay or concrete...
s and
sculptureSculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard and/or plastic material, sound, and/or text and or light, commonly stone , metal, glass, or wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or carving; others are assembled, built together and fired, welded, molded,...
s of
Charles Marion RussellCharles Marion Russell , also known as C. M. Russell, was an artist of the American West. Russell created more than 2,000 paintings of cowboys, Indians, and landscapes set in the Western United States, in addition to bronze sculptures...
which he displayed in his bookstore.
Fred Rosenstock became recognized as the leading bookseller in the field of western history and located and sold many books to the important western history collections, notably to the
libraryA library is a collection of sources, resources, and services, and the structure in which it is housed; it is organized for use and maintained by a public body, an institution, or a private individual. In the more traditional sense, a library is a collection of books. It can mean the collection,...
at
Brigham Young UniversityBrigham Young University , located in Provo, Utah, United States, is a private, coeducational research university owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...
and the Denver Public Library.
He was also a
publisherPublishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information – the activity of making information available for public view...
operating as the Old West Publishing Company, issuing about 30 significant books.
By the 1970s Fred was still active, but ready to reduce his activities. His extensive art collection was sold at auction (with disappointing
results) and he closed his magnificent bookstore.
External links
Further reading
- Fred Rosenstock, A Legend in Books & Art, Donald E. Bower, Foreword by Frank Waters
Frank Waters was a Colorado Springs-born American writer. He is known both for his novels about the American Southwest and for the Frank Waters Foundation, which strives to foster literary and artistic achievement in the Southwest United States...
, Northland Press, Flagstaff, Arizona, 1976, hardback, 212 pages.