Brattle Book Shop

The Brattle Book Shop was founded in 1825 in the Cornhill section of Boston. It has belonged to the Gloss family since 1949. George Gloss and his son Kenneth built it into one of the larger antiquarian book shops in the country, and Ken Gloss remains the proprietor. The shop moved to West Street in 1969. George marked the move by riding through Boston in a horse-drawn covered wagon, handing out books and telling passers-by to go west. The shop still occupies the three-story building at 9 West Street in Downtown Boston. Two floors hold general used books and a third floor holds rare and antiquarian volumes, with an outside sale lot of bargain carts. The stock runs past 250,000 items, from books and maps to prints, postcards and ephemera on every subject. The rare book room keeps first editions and fine leather bindings. An experienced buyer is on hand during the day. The shop buys everything from single volumes to whole estates, by appointment. Ken Gloss is a past president of the New England chapter of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America. He appraises books and libraries for Harvard, Boston University, Boston College, Northeastern and the FBI, among others. He appears on Antiques Roadshow and lectures to library groups and historical societies across New England. The shop produces a podcast called the Brattlecast, and its staff post a find of the week from the shelves.