Full name: Old Books, Rare Friends: Two Literary Sleuths and Their Shared Passion

Authors: Leona Rostenberg, Madeleine Stern Year: 1997 Rank: Rating: Original Rating: Pop Rating: Genres/categories: Books about books, Memoirs, Non Fiction Purchase/reserch links: Goodreads Amazon LibraryThing ISBNs: 9780385485159 9780385485142 0385485158 038548514X

Louisa May Alcott once wrote that she had taken her pen for a bridegroom. Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern, friends and business partners for fifty years, have in many ways taken up their pens and passion for literature much in the same way. The "Holmes & Watson" of the rare book business, Rostenberg and Stern are renowned for unlocking the hidden secret of Louisa May Alcott's life when they discovered her pseudonym, A.M. Barnard, along with her anonymously published "blood and thunder" stories on subjects like transvestitism, hashish smoking, and feminism. Old Books, Rare Friends describes their mutual passion for books and literary sleuthing as they take us on their earliest European book buying jaunts. Using what they call Finger-spitzengefühl, the art of evaluating antiquarian books by handling, experience, and instinct, we are treated to some of their greatest discoveries amid the mildewed basements of London's booksellers after the Blitz. We experience the thrill of finding one of the earliest known books printed in America between 1617-1619 by the Pilgrim Press and learn about the influential role of publisher-printers from the fifteenth century. Like a precious gem, Old Books, Rare Friends is a book to treasure about the companionship of two rare friends and their shared passion for old books. Similar books: A Pound of Paper by John Baxter Shelf Life by Suzanne Strempek Shea Memoirs of a Book Snake by David Meyer Books by Larry McMurtry The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee Used and Rare by Lawrence Goldstone Slightly Chipped by Lawrence Goldstone Ruined by Reading by Lynne Sharon Schwartz Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading by Maureen Corrigan Sixpence House by Paul Collins The Child That Books Built by Francis Spufford One for the Books by Joe Queenan So Many Books, So Little Time by Sara Nelson Speaking of Books by Rob Kaplan Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill How the Heather Looks by Joan Bodger When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom Born a Crime by Trevor Noah Educated by Tara Westover