Maedeleine B. Stern (1912-), dealer in rare books and biographer, especially of Louisa May Alcott and other 19th century authors.

Madeleine B. Stern was born to Moses R. and Lillie Mack Stern in New York City 1 July 1912. She received her B.A. degree from Barnard in 1932 and her M.A. (degrees in English Literature) from Columbia University in 1933. Her biography of Margaret Fuller was written partly in Ogunquit, Maine, where she spent several summers. She contributed many articles on various literary subjects to the Sewanee Review, the New England Quarterly, Americana, The South Atlantic Quarterly, etc. (from inside back cover of The Life of Margaret Fuller, 1942). On the merits of this text, Madeleine was awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship to work on a biography of Louisa May Alcott. When the Fellowship expired, Madeleine taught English in secondary schools to support herself until March 1945, when she resigned as a teacher and became the business partner of her friend and co-worker, Leona Rostenberg, in the sale of rare books. From 1945 to 1991, while in that trade, she amused herself by researching alternately rare (often foreign) books and 19th century America.

In that time, she produced numerous volumes on her favorite research subject, Louisa May Alcott, including a biography of the same title. Her partner, Leona, discovered four of Alcott’s unknown thrillers, as a result Madeleine wrote Behind a Mask: The Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott, 1975; Plots and Counterplots: More Unknown Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott, 1976; A Double Life: Newly Discovered Thrillers of Louisa May Alcott, 1988; and Freaks of Genius, 1991. Subsequently, Madeleine also edited Critical Essays on Louisa May Alcott (1984), A Modern Mephistopheles, and Taming a Tartar (1987); and co-edited Selected Letters (1987), Journals (1988), and Selected Fiction (1991).

Apart from her research on Louisa May Alcott, Stern also wrote books on assorted obscure figures in 19th American history, such as Stephen Pearl Andrews, Margaret Fuller (aforementioned), Mrs. Frank Leslie, Dr. Isabel Barrows, Victoria Woodhull, etc., as well as about 19th century life and 19th century women in general. Also, she authored several bibliographies on rare books and booksellers.