Old Books in the Old World

This is a charming account of postwar book buying abroad by the "Holmes and Watson" of antiquarian books. After the war, Americans went abroad for European culture, food and art, but Rostenberg and Stern, the Grand Dames of the antiquarian bookselling world, went to Europe to buy old books. Old Books in the Old World glows with the details of their book-buying trips abroad between 1947 and 1957. Filled with tales of steamships, cobblestone streets and dusty rare bookshops, this illustrated journal draws from original diaries and letters and contemporary recollections. Full of history and bookish tales, this personal insight into postwar Europe and the antiquarian book-selling scene will be of interest both to the seasoned bibliophile and to the casual reader.