Leona Rostenberg

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Leona Rustberg (* 28. December 1908 ; † 23. March 2005 in New York ) was an US -American Buchantiquarin and historian .

Life

Leona was the second child of the doctor Adolph Rostenberg and his wife Louisa, née Dreyfus - both of German-Jewish descent. She grew up in the Bronx , attended Evander Childs High School and Washington Square College at New York University after elementary school . In the fall of 1932, she took a doctorate in history at Columbia University . She researched for several years for a dissertation on the importance of printers for the dissemination of knowledge and the development of worldviews during the Renaissance and Reformation, which, however, was not accepted by her doctoral supervisor, Lynn Thorndike .

From 1939 to 1944 she worked as an assistant for the antiquarian Herbert Reichner, who had emigrated from Austria, and then went into business for herself with her own antiquarian bookstore. Thanks to what she herself likes to have “ instinct” , she was able to establish herself in the industry and became increasingly committed to her profession. She was involved in organizing the first US antiquarian book fair, which was held in New York in 1960, and was elected President of the Antiquarian Bookseller Association of America (ABAA) in 1972.

In addition to her commercial occupation with old books, she repeatedly devoted herself to studies on the history of the publishing and book industry with a focus on the development in England in the 16th and 17th centuries. In 1973 Columbia University awarded her a doctorate in recognition of her scientific publications in this field.

Leona Rostenberg remained active as an author and bookseller into old age. The memories she wrote together with her long-term partner Madeleine Stern have been available in German translation since 2004.

Book publications

  • 1963: English publishers in the graphic arts, 1599-1700
  • 1965: Literary, political, scientific, religious & legal publishing, printing & bookselling in England, 1551 - 1700
  • 1971: The minority press & the English crown, a study in repression 1558 - 1625
  • 1978: Bibliately, the history of books on postage stamps
  • 1989: The library of Robert Hooke: the scientific book trade of Restoration England

literature

  • Leona Rostenberg and Madeleine Stern: Two friends, one passion. Our lives for rare books. Hamburg: Hoffmann and Campe 2004. ISBN 3-455-09429-5
  • Stephen Miller: Leona Rostenberg, 96, rare book dealer . In: The New York Sun , March 23, 2005
personal data
SURNAME Rostenberg, Leona
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American antiquarian and historian
DATE OF BIRTH December 28, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH New York City , USA
DATE OF DEATH March 23, 2005
Place of death New York City , USA