Fred Rosenstock

Who was Fred Rosenstock?

Fred Asher Rosenstock was a prominent bookseller, book and art collector and publisher in Denver, Colorado from the 1920s through the 1970s. His family emigrated to America in 1904. The family lived in Rochester, New York.

During World War I Fred moved to Washington, DC and worked both as a civilian and later in the US Army as a stenographer. After the war he worked for a billboard company, but became ill. He was advised to move to a dry, desert climate such as California. He went west but never got past Denver.

Fred had been interested in books from his youth, and by the time he was in Washington was a collector haunting the book shops and building a small collection. In Denver he continued collecting and in 1922 opened his first bookstore, the Denver Book Shop, an antiquarian book store. It was not a success. Later after marrying Frances Goodman in 1928 he purchased an existing book store in a good location on 15th Street in Denver and renamed it the Bargain Book Store. He continued to collect and sell rare books but the main business of the Bargain Book Store was selling school textbooks. This line got the business through the great depression. The store burned in 1948 and was rebuilt.