Madeleine Bettina Stern (July 1, 1912-August 18, 2007), born in New York, New York, was an American historian and rare books dealer and noted Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott

Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist. She is best known for the novel Little Women and its sequels Little Men and Jo's Boys. Little Women was set in the Alcott family home, Orchard House in Concord, Massachusetts, and published in 1868...

 scholar.

Stern and her decades long friend and business partner Leona Rostenberg

Leona Rostenberg

Leona Rostenberg was an American historian and rare books dealer born in New York, New York.Rostenberg and her decades long friend and business partner Madeleine B...

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.

Books by Madeleine B. Stern

• The Life of Margaret Fuller, 1942.
• Louisa May Alcott, 1950, (revised editions published in 1971, 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, 1988.
• 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.

Books co-authored by Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine B. Stern

• 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.