October 25, 2024 • 40 mins
Are you an avid reader or a collector of rare books? Ken Gloss, the owner of Brattle Book Shop in Boston joined Dan to discuss the value of your antiquarian books as well as two of Boston’s upcoming book festivals!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm Deli Leazy, Boston's
new radio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We always on Friday night is week ease you at
the weekend. We have two hours left and we're going
to be talking with Ken Gloss in just a moment,
but I'll remind you that we will do our last
final Friday of the year before the November election. The
November election is on November fifth, So as I think
(00:33):
all of you know for the last now seven months
and soon this would be the eighth month since last March.
On the last Friday of the month, sometimes it was
the thirtieth or the thirty first, other times it was
the twenty seventh, of the twenty fifth or whatever. And
tonight it's October twenty fifth. We would have a little poll,
a little snap poll in that what we call the
(00:55):
twentieth hour, on who you would be inclined to vote
for for president. Of course, we started off with the Ames, Trump, Biden,
and Kennedy. Kennedy has dropped out, as has Joe Biden.
It is now Trump and Harris and we will do
our final, our eighth poll during the eleven o'clock hour.
But before we do that, I'm delighted to have back
a regular guest in this program, my great friend Ken
(01:18):
Gloss of the Bradle Bookshop, and we're going to talk
about a couple of book events coming up in Boston
won this weekend and a bigger one next weekend. And
also Ken Gloss has always been willing to share with
us some books or some manuscripts that he has recently
had his hands on, and he's also willing to give
(01:42):
you an idea if you have a rare book or
a rare manuscript in your possession. Ken, welcome back to
Night Side. How are you, sir?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
I'm fine, and it's a lot of fun to be
back and talk with you, and looking forward to these
books events, which of course I'm very involved with. But
it's just really good talking with you. It always is, well, Ken.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I think if I could call anyone a bibliophile, it
would be you. You love books. You've spent your entire life
surrounded by books, and basically you have made a life
associated with books. And what a wonderful life you have
(02:31):
you have had and that you continue to have followed
in your dad's footsteps the Brattle Bookshop, and many people
used to get confused you're on West Street, You're not
on Brattle Street. But I know there was a point
in time. What is the derivation of the Brattle Bookshop?
Was it at some point?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Well, what happened was in nineteen forty nine my parents
were getting married. The Brattle Bookshop, which actually you can
trace back to the eighteen twenties, was literally going back
out of business, and my mother had five hundred dollars
and with that they bought half interest. Now, the thing
about Brattle Street, which was where the bookstore was, there
(03:13):
was a small street in what was Scarley Square of
Boston called Brattle Street. And to make it even more confusing,
the street doesn't exist anymore. It's where City Hall Plaza
is now noticed Scary Square.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
And all the entertainment that ensued there.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
All the entertainment then, very interesting entertainment. I have to
admit I was way too young to take part. I
just heard about it all.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yes, me too, But no street, the more famous Brattle
Street in Cambridge.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Well, what I had to do was in the early
seventeen hundreds in Boston, We'll go back a few years
to get the story. There was a very very rich
merchant named Thomas Braddell. He had some land in Boston,
and he owned an awful lot of land in Cambridge.
Thus Brattle Street in Cambridge, and that's where the name
(04:12):
comes from, a very rich Bostonian in the early seventeen hundreds.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Wow, that gets us back aways. So for people who
don't understand that, oftentimes you find your inventory. If you
want to go find a New York Times current bestseller,
you probably go to Amazon. You probably go to if
there are any Barnes and Nobles left bookstores. So that's
(04:41):
not what you deal in. You deal in books that
you have bought from families or from estate sales, and
people go and browse your bookstore like crazy. You're on
West Street in Boston.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah. Well, it's actually very interesting. One of the things
that people don't realize about the business. So and they
picture someone in the book business sitting behind talking with
people about books, but they don't think of is we
just moved twenty thousand books out of someone's house in
one of the Boston suburbs. I was in Connecticut two
(05:20):
days ago moving about two thousand books. In Maine yesterday
moving a thousand or more. And it's really a physical
job too. But it's also it's the hunt. It's the search.
It's sort of like being Jim Hawkins on Treasure Island,
never knowing quite what you're going to meet. And most
(05:41):
people who are interested in books are interesting people. So
you meet a lot of real characters and fun people
and brilliant and that's one of the joys of the
whole business too.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
So give us the name, and we're going to obviously
talk about these book fairs that are coming up, the
one this weekend and the one next weekend. And I
also do want to encourage people if they'd like to
call in and inquire if they have some manuscript or
book and that of years past, and they would love
you to venture an estimatest of with the value of that.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
And you never know, you never know what's been sitting around.
Because just recently a colleague of mine, I do the
Antiques bro Show, I've done that for over twenty years,
but a colleague in North Carolina was at an estate.
Really nice to say to North Carolina. They were looking
through furniture that was over two hundred years old. They
(06:39):
opened up one of the draws. There was a piece
of paper in the draw. That piece of paper was
an early, very early printing of the Constitution. It went
up for auction, and so over nine million dollars. So
that had been sitting in a probably a piece of
furniture for two hundred thirty or forty years, and all
(07:02):
of a sudden it was found. And so that can happen.
It is unusual though, but a lot of it is
just you know, people have sod.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Let me ask you. You said, you, colleague, that was
he in the in the process of buying the furniture,
or was he at the estate sale and going through
the home and figuring out what he wanted to purchase.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
No, he wasn't. He was in there as an appraiser.
Now there was the estate and the lawyers had called
him in to look through the furniture, look through all
the objects. He wasn't an expert in books and manuscripts,
but he was very knowledgeable. So when he spotted it,
he knew, wait a minute, this is something we've got
(07:47):
to get people in and really look at. And obviously
everybody was sort of taken aback and surprised. And you know,
it still happens.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I mean, if I'm not mistaken, the number of original
declarations of independence and constitutions. They pretty much of you know,
the original documents. They have some I think estimate as
to how many of those remain in existence. And it's
(08:18):
it's it's not a big figure in either within either group.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Correct, it's in the twenties and thirties. The Constitution is
even rarer. I mean, it's a piece of paper, you know,
and it's a piece of paper, and it's well over
two hundred something years old. And the other thing about
them is a lot of the copies that you hear
about or can see or view are in institutional library
(08:46):
state underglass, not only under glass, but you know they're
never going to come up for sale or be available
to the public, so you know it's one. So that's
an extreme example, although I have to admit I one
time got called in to do an appraisal and I
(09:08):
wasn't told about what the appraisal was going to be
ahead of time. I walked in a building basement, folding
table fluorescent lighting, and there was a copy of the
Bill of Rights, the Pilgrim chartter and a copy a
printed copy of the Declaration. But at the top it
(09:28):
said this is a true and authentic copy in ink,
signed John Hancock, and I wasn't and I will admit
I put my little finger on each one of them,
and I remember putting my finger on a more. Now
those are in the Massachusetts State Archives at the museum
near the Kennedy, but I saw them before they ended
(09:49):
up under glass. And when you talk about thrills, that's
one of them.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Unbelievable. My guest is Ken Gloss, you'd like to join
the conversation. We're going to talk about a couple of
events coming up which are open to the public. Uh.
And if you are a bibliophile or someone of that interest,
you you're going to be and you're going to enjoy
this next hour. I know my friend David Breadnoy, one
of my predecessors in this this night side at what
(10:18):
was it was called the David Brudnoy Show at the time,
but in this time frame at WBZ, was has an
extraordinary capacity to read and absorb information, and of course
he was a writer as well as a reader. I'm
not close to where David Brudnoy was, but I do
have more than a passing interest in books and a
(10:38):
friendship with Ken Gloss that goes back many years. He's
a great guy to deal with. If you have something
in your possession that you'd like to ask him about,
feel free to join the conversation At six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten
thirty we get back. We'll talk more with Ken Uh
and also talk about these two events, one that that
(10:59):
starts this weekend here in Boston and one that is
a big, big event next weekend. We'll get to all
of that. Feel free to participate. Make this a conversation
that involves you as well. We'll be back on night's
side with Ken Gloss of the Brattle Bookshop on West
Street in downtown Boston after this.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World
Nights six studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
My guest is Ken Gloss to the Bradle Bookshop. So Ken,
let's talk the event this weekend and the event next weekend.
Let's start with this weekend. I assume both of these
are open to the public. There may be an admission charge,
but let's talk about this weekend first.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Well, well, first of all, they're both definitely open to
the public. Matter of fact, we love the public to
come because those are the people that we've won an
interest in get reading and collecting and so on. So
the one this week weekend is called the Boston Book Festival.
It's mostly new books and a lot of authors centralized
(12:07):
write in Copley Square. It's free, there's no charge at all.
We have a booth right in front of the Boston
Public Library. We're probably the only ones really bringing old
We wanted to represent the old books and the older items,
whereas most of the others speakers, thousands of people come.
(12:33):
Copley Square is humming with literature, young children's authors, major authors,
and it's going to be a beautiful day. It's outdoors
and then in a lot of the buildings of churches
and so.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
On in the area.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Right, I mean, if you're going to be in the
Boston area, definitely get by Copley Square tomorrow and I'll
tell you that this fare it's been going for I'm
not sure fifteen twenty years now, and they've had good
weather almost every single year. So that's the Heavens is
saying it's something to go and see, and we will
(13:11):
be representative there and we're bringing in this fair. We
don't bring our rare items. We bring general books, some history,
We bring this year. I think a lot of the
sort of older nineteen forties and fifties paperbacks with the
lurid covers and stories more general outdoor pick up a book, geeve,
(13:35):
you can look and collect. And then what we also
do is try to encourage a lot of the people
and new books say hey, there's going to be an
old and rare book show coming up in a few
weeks too. So it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
So the event tomorrow, it sounds to me like it's
set up in that park that is really Copley Square,
but you're not on the on the steps of the
Public Library, and you're not at the front of the
complete Plaza hotel. You're in that that public space.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Correct, well, the public space is being redone right now,
that big park. So literally we're on the sidewalk in
front of the Boston Public Library. The old yeah, right
right on there is where it is it used to
be in that park, but the park's being renovated.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And then a lot of the oftentimes Dartmouth Street is
closed to traffic. It is so is it closed to traffic,
it will be closed.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
It will be closed to traffic tomorrow. They have I
think a few food trucks, but then they have a
lot of lectures that again you can go into the
churches in the area. And it's just a really fun, light,
easy event where people are just trying to promote literacy,
(14:56):
reading and uh and how could we not be at
some thing that's that's showing books And we've done it
since it first started and it's a fabulous event.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
So okay, so let's talk about the big event, which
is the following weekend, Friday, the eight of November through
Sunday the tenth. That's at the Heinz Convention Center in
downtown Boston right by they share the Sheridan Boston Hotel.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Yeah, and that's and that's an event that I think
it's in the forty seventh or eighth year in Boston.
The organization is seventy five years old, but it's it's
about one hundred one hundred plus dealers from all over
the world, from Europe, some from the Eastern Europe, Great Britain,
(15:46):
tell then all over the United States. Dealers come and
they have basically old or rare but almost any area
of subject that you can think of.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Friday, it's I think from four to eight and there
is a twenty five dollars admission charge. But I'll tell
you a secret. If any of you people listening now
want to go to the Friday night opening, I'll bet
you if they got in touch with me, I could
come up with comp tickets for them. I made sure
to have a bunch.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Okay, But then you may stop by.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Or call or email or something, and we'll make sure
they get them.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
And we'll give that information at the end of the hour,
so that people have a chance to get a piece
of paper, a pencil, and we'll give them your email
or a phone number where they could reach out to
the bookshop.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Absolutely, and then Saturday and Sunday it's free. There's no
admission charge because we don't want to discourage people from
coming in and looking. And a lot of people they
go to a show like or they hear about it
and they think it's very erudite and they think that,
you know how I would we be interested. But it
covers almost every subject that you can think of, and
(17:01):
not everything is high priced. Matter of fact, we make
an effort to have a lot of the dealers to
have things under one hundred dollars, just so it's a
little more accessible, matter of fact, to give you an idea.
And this is when we have some speakers, maybe one
you know, Dick Johnson over at the Sports Museum. He's
going to be speaking on Sunday. But one of the
(17:24):
things that I was saying I'm hoping to get before
the fair that I thought would interest you. I am
trying to buy an eighteen nineties photograph of the Boston
Latin School baseball team.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
But you know I did not play on that team.
I want you to know that that was before my time.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Well, I was more likely to root for the team
when you were there than I was at this one.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
But it's things come in like that.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Now.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
There will be letters of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, There'll
be cookbooks signed by Julia Child. One of the things
I know that I'm bringing is a program from the
from the nineteen twelve World Series first year at Gunway Park,
Red Sox win the World Series. Se Yeah, and a
(18:22):
program from it. Also, I have a promotional brochure for
Titanic if you want to go on a cruise, I
don't recommend it, but I have the brochure for it.
So all of that is there and if someone comes
in and you know, maybe you're going out Saturday night,
or you're around Sunday afternoon, maybe you don't want to
(18:45):
watch the Patriots game or something like that. You can
come there spend an hour or two. And I think
most people, if they figure they're going to spend an hour,
they end up at three to four. And you can
actually touch these things. Another book that I know someone
is bringing, let me.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Ask you that there's a question, ken that I have,
and that is the how tight is the security at
this It is the forty sixth Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair,
and again November eighth to the tenth at the Hinz
Convention Center, you know, very you know, conveniently located on
(19:23):
Boylston Street, right, you know, sort of the back of
the Sheridan Boston Hotel lost the Sheridan Hotel whatever they
call it these days. How tight is the security when
some of the documents of the papers that you suggest
are there, I mean all.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
There worth thousands of dollars and tens of thousands. Well,
first of all, there is a co check. You can't
bring bags in. There are security guards checking when you
leave the you know that you have receipts and so on.
But each deal has a booth and you have your
(20:00):
people in the booth.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
You got to you gotta be Obviously, none of my
audience is going to go there and try to do
anything illegal. Ken, I'm going to take a very quick
got to take you a very quick break here because
because of all of the the activity tonight in the
Middle East, we're expecting a CBS special news report. My
guest is Ken Gloss or the Brattle Bookshop. If you
want to join the conversation, you have the numbers. But
(20:22):
before we get back to Ken, this is a special
news report from CBS on the Middle East.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
My guest is Ken Glass, Ken Gloss of the Brattle Bookshop,
and we are talking about a couple of events coming
up tomorrow and next weekend. The event tomorrow is in
Copley Square in Boston, uh in front of the Boston
Public Library that Ken talked about it. And then the
book fair the forty six is an international into Boston
(20:58):
International Interquarian Book Fair from November eighth to the tenth.
Next next weekend at the Hinds Convention Center. Again, Ken
said that the admission charge tomorrow, there's no admission charge,
and there is an admission charge to the event on
Friday night, but there was there's no admission charge for
(21:23):
Saturday and Sunday. But Ken said that he might be
able to get a few comp tickets. So if you're
interested for next Friday night, Ken will give it an
address an email later on during this hour, which will
which he gets you in there. Ken, before we get
the phone calls, I have a question, and it's it's
(21:43):
kind of a general question, but I think you could
probably answer it. I know that if if there was ever,
say a book of Abraham Lincoln that had some relationship
to Lincoln that he signed, or a book signed by
George Washington, or for that matter, a book signed by
Franklin Roosevelt, it would be of a gnomeous value. But give
(22:05):
us an idea if someone wanted to, say, to try
to build a collection of some books signed by presidents.
I'm not talking about again the Superstar Press. I'm talking
about a Franklin Pierce, Martin van Buren, Rutherford B. Hayes,
or something like that. I'm in many of those books
from the presidents of the nineteenth century, maybe the early
(22:29):
twentieth century that are are available, and if so, what
would it cost to build a you know, a small
library of a presidential library that you would never have
a hope of having a Washington book or obviously there's
no there's no autobiography of Abraham Lincoln signed because obviously
he never wrote an autobiography. What what would a book
(22:52):
signed by I don't know, James Buchanan or someone you
know that area, Zachary Taylor or someone like that, a
lesser known US president Benjamin Harrison. How much how much
would a book like that be worth?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
They can probably range anywhere from four or five hundred
to maybe one thousand and fifteen hundred, depends on what
the book is, how it signed. Also would depend what
it signed when they were president, which collectors prefer as
opposed to before or after. So you know, you can
get all sorts of variations on that, but no, they're
(23:32):
out there. Actually, a really interesting one that sells for
maybe around fifteen one hundred of dollars is a Life
of Franklin Pierce. But one of the reasons that one's
collected it was written by Nathaniel Hawthorn. He wrote the
campaign biography for Pierce, and what do you know, he
(23:54):
got a government job after that, Halikan did.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And so the the books are about Pierce, written by Hawthorne,
signed by Peers.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yeah, fifteen twenty five hundred. Now the other thing that you've.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Had, of course, is in New England from New Hampshire.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Is New Hampshire, so that would be an interesting but yeah,
the lesser known presidents there's less demand. And yeah, you
could in the mid hundreds to mid thousands you could
get most everything. And if you're looking to collect modern presidents,
I mean Jimmy Potter wrote a lot of books and
signed them, Gerald Ford Bush, you know a lot of
(24:38):
those you can get in a few hundreds of dollars.
You know, it depends on what the news is. Kennedy
is higher, but Truman, Eisenhower, they're all, you know, relatively
within range and.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
That and how do you reach how if you if
you're someone who's a novice and is starting off and saying, look,
I want to have a book or two in my
library that actually signed by a former president. Are they
websites or would they go through someone like you and say, hey,
can you direct me, you tell me, tell me what
(25:17):
would be how would someone proceed?
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Well? What I yes, they can always get in touch
with me, and I can always point them in the
right direction or have things. It's one of the things
is they could go to the book fair on through
A through the tenth, and I guarantee you there will
be dealers there with a fair number of signed presidential books,
(25:40):
not only the Washington's and the Lincoln's, which there are
signed books, but the more modern presidents and those dealers
a lot of them will bring some of their better
material to this fair. But they'll say, Okay, back at
the shop or so on, we have this, this, this,
We'll send you an email. Cattle. They're out there, they're available.
(26:03):
People collect them.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
They cherish. What type of a book would have Washington
affixed his signature to.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Well, he actually signed most of the books that he
had in his library at Mount Vernon and those so
it's not just books that he wrote or had, it
just books that he that belonged to him. Jeff Yah, Yeah,
the Jefferson, the same thing. Lincoln. One of the ones
(26:33):
that you can that as high up there is the
Lincoln Douglas Debates, which was some of the most famous
debates in presidential history. Now those runs into the tens
of thousands of dollars or more, but they're out there.
They signed them. People were wanting autographs going right back
(26:54):
to the early parts of this country.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Uh, how do you know that you're getting a book
that was actually signed? Uh you know, you you have
no way of knowing that. You know, with a lot
of uh, you know, baseball signatures there there there's letters
of authenticity that come with a ball signed by Nicky
Nantel and they have people who know the signature. Is
(27:17):
that the same procedure with books?
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Percential it's you don't get the letters of authenticity as much.
It's not as general as the sports. But there are
people who this is their specialty. They've been doing this
for years and years, very very good reputations. And if
someone came to me asked, I could point them in
(27:40):
the right direction. And also, uh, this organization that puts
this on the interquarm booksellers, it's a vetted organization. It
takes four or five years to get in. So there
are things and then quite honestly, even the best experts
can make them as and that can happen, but as
(28:03):
soon as they realized they've made a mistake, they will refund, rectify,
get you what you needed. And that's almost as important
as you know that. Don't stand behind it.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
All right, Let's get to a couple of phone calls here.
If you have an item you'd like to discuss with
Ken Gloss of any written material, whether it's a book,
a letter, or a manuscript of some sort. Let me
go first off to Sandra in Carver. Sandra, you are
next on night Side with Ken Gloss.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
Go ahead, Sandra, Okay, thank you for taking my call.
And I just have a couple of questions. I do
have a book here. I believe I talked to Brattle
Street book Shop several years ago about this book.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
No Street, it's just brattle Bookshop book right, I bike
rode down Bridle Street and it went a few years back.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
But anyways, in one of the little pages here it says,
presented to blank it's No Name by the Church of
the Incarnation, New York, Christmas eighteen eighty two.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
And what's the title of the book.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
It's Tennyson's first edition all his works.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
And where where was it printed? Do you have it
in front of you? What's the I have the book
right here.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
Let me just look New York Richard Worthington, seven to
seven Old Broadway.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Okay, well, see that's one of the reasons I asked
that is Tennyson was the poet Laureate of England. His
first editions were done in England, they weren't New York.
So what you have there is probably a very nice
old edition, but not the first or rare. You know,
(30:03):
probably something that's in the ten to twenty five dollar range,
and a lot of times when it says presented to
it might have been something that was sold by the
church or something in that range. But it is not
a first edition because he was English in his first
editions were done in London Indonesia.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
The person who gave me this book, that's what they
told me. And I do have another little book if
the World Atlas dated nineteen eighteen, pretty good condition.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
World Atlases nineteen eighteen is during the war, and so
people tend to look more at atlases during the war.
They like them better. You also tend to see, especially
when you get to Europe in that area, how borderlines
are changing from time to time. The politics change, the
war changes things. But nineteen eighteen, though it's over one
(31:01):
hundred years old for Atlas, isn't that rare? So you're
probably talking twenty five fifty dollars at best. What you
want to get is back into the seventeen sixteen, fifteen hundreds,
and that's where the countries and the maps start looking
a lot different, and that's where the collectors really go
(31:21):
after them.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Ra hope that hope that helps.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Yeah, I was just curious. I have a couple of
other books, but I couldn't dig them out.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
But not a problem. We'll have Ken Gloss on again.
Thank you, Sandra, I gotta check the break here, Okay,
thank you.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
Mich Thank you, bye bye.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
We'll try to get a couple more calls in if
you stick with us. It is now six one, seven, two,
five four ten thirty six month seven nine three one
ten thirty. What happens Ken in these situations If people
start to call, then the phone's light up and we'll
be here all night. But we're gonna keep cam with
us until eleven o'clock. We'll try to get everyone in.
We'll be back on night's side with some more with
(31:58):
Ken Gloss right after a couple of messages.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
All right, let me get to back to the call.
As my guest is Ken Gloss. Let me go to
Florence and Groveland, Florence. You are on with Ken Gloss.
Go right ahead, Florence. What's your question? What item would
you like Ken to evaluate for you? Go ahead?
Speaker 5 (32:22):
Yeah, I've got an item, Ken, And I just wanted
to mention before I mentioned my item, Ken, I am
related to Franklin Pius on my dad's.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Okay books, Florence, go.
Speaker 5 (32:42):
Ahead, He didn't, but I'm an aviderator. Ken. My book
I have my mother gave me a while back. It's
the a copy I guess of the Scarlet Letter. It
made it copyright nineteen twenty nine, and I was just
(33:05):
wondering about it. The book is is old but very legible,
and it has those very fine silky pages, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (33:19):
Paper, Okay, tent tent.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Keen is going to be able to give you. My
guess is that the Scarlett Letter was around well before that.
And oh yeah, I might be disappointed with what Ken
has to say.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
Go ahead, Ken, Well you be rich to know.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Hold on, Hold on Fla, just hold on, let's give
let's give kenn a shot here and then.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
You can still doing. The Scarlet Letter was done in
the eighteen fifties, so if you had nineteen twenties, that's
a good seventy years after. So it's old for years.
But for Scarlet Letter, not that old. But the Scarlet
Letter is a classic. It was done in hundreds of
different edition and some of the ones were made as
(34:02):
sort of gifts with very nice pages and so on.
But they're not terribly valuable. Probably again in the ten
twenty five dollar range. You just have to get one
another seventy years.
Speaker 5 (34:15):
Older, okay, all right, it's not as though you could
purchase one now, you know, the nineteen twenty nine days.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Yeah, they're probably.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Yeah, you definitely could find them and uh and you
can find the others too. But it's it's interesting, it's fun,
but not not terribly valuable.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
All right, Thanks very much, Florence, and thanks for the
comments about Franklin Pierce.
Speaker 5 (34:49):
Yank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Let me go next to Matt mad you're on with
ken Glass so the Bridle Bookshop. Go ahead, Matt, all.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
Right, real quick.
Speaker 6 (34:57):
So I appreciate the time I actually authenticate for JSA,
James Spence for sports. Now I have an item from
Edgar Allen Poe that's a cut, a cut signature that
has passed JSA and also Beckett Pending as real. What
(35:22):
value is that? Looking at roughly, if it's just a.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Cut signature without anything beyond that, you're probably talking in
the five to five hundred to a few thousand dollars,
depending on how doc, how bold you know, if there's
any fading or some one in that range. Poll letters
can go for thousands and thousands of dollars. But what
really determines the value is the content of the letter,
(35:51):
and that's what the collectors who are really looking for
it looking for or assigned a book the cut signature.
What people usually will do with that is get an
old engraving, frame it up and you know, once to
a store, you might be talking a few thousand dollars,
(36:12):
but the frame itself could cost four or five hundred.
So in that ballpark, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
That's cool, all.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Right, So you know, congratulations on that. That's yeah, No,
I mean it's it's it's a great I would say,
probably hold on to it for now. If you with
if you had a letter with which was a legitimate
Edgar Allen Pole letter, Uh, talking about Lamar Jackson. That
(36:49):
would be worth a hell of a lotta time the
current quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens, who obviously are named
after the poem, The Ravens. Thank you, Thank you, my friend. Okay,
(37:10):
you know, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
I was gonna say one of the things that when
you're authenticating and looking letters, especially when it's a letter,
is beyond even the signature you look historically, does it
make sense? Was the person alive when this was written?
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Was? You know?
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Can it make sense? And that's part of the authentication
process too.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Yeah, he would not have ever written a letter about
Lamar Jackson or for that matter, the Baltimore Ravens.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Anyway, very much.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
That's easy, Yeah, yeah, I just had to have some
fun with it, that's all. So, how can folks get
in touch with you? Particularly? You were very gracious to
offer the possibility of getting people tickets to the to
the Friday night of the forty six lost at International Antiquarium,
which is a twenty five dollars ticket. What's the best
(38:06):
way they can read you this week?
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Well, you can always go to our website Bradlebookshop dot com,
and it's all of the contact information is there. I mean,
I would love it if you could come into the
store and we could show you around, if you said
you heard me on night side, if I'm there, I'll
give you a tour and explain things. But and if
(38:27):
you called the store, we you know, and I knew
you were coming an email. I could just put some
tickets aside for you. But I really encourage you. If
you have any inkling in history and sports and collectable books,
autograph this show at the Hinds the eighth through the tenth.
You'll love it. Even if you don't think you'll love it,
(38:48):
you'll love it.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Yeah, it's the real It is the real deal. Ken
Gloss is always your one of my my most fascinating guests.
Your your depth and breadth of knowledge about politics, literature,
sports is unbelievable. Thank you, my friend. We will talk soon, okay.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
And thank you, and I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Thank you, Dan Ken Gloss of Brattle Bookshop on West
Street in Boston, not to be confused with Brattle Street
anywhere else. Thanks Ken. We'll talk soon when we come back.
Our final twenty twenty presidential poll. I want to know
if the election were held today and it's only a
couple of week and a half away or so, now,
(39:29):
who would be your candidate. We've done this. This will
be our eighth month. We do the twentieth hour the
last Friday of the month. It happens to be the
twenty fifth of October. We will not have another last
Friday of the month before November fifth. So dial away.
If you called earlier this week you get a hall passed,
you can call in this hour as well and tell us.
(39:50):
You can tell us who you think will win and
who you're going to vote for, And in most cases
it's probably pretty similar. If you want to tell us
who you're going to vote for, but you don't think
that person's going to win, that would be an interesting
issue as well. Six one, seven, two, five, four ten
thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty Back
after the eleven o'clock news
It's Night Side with Dan Ray. I'm Deli Leazy, Boston's
new radio.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
We always on Friday night is week ease you at
the weekend. We have two hours left and we're going
to be talking with Ken Gloss in just a moment,
but I'll remind you that we will do our last
final Friday of the year before the November election. The
November election is on November fifth, So as I think
(00:33):
all of you know for the last now seven months
and soon this would be the eighth month since last March.
On the last Friday of the month, sometimes it was
the thirtieth or the thirty first, other times it was
the twenty seventh, of the twenty fifth or whatever. And
tonight it's October twenty fifth. We would have a little poll,
a little snap poll in that what we call the
(00:55):
twentieth hour, on who you would be inclined to vote
for for president. Of course, we started off with the Ames, Trump, Biden,
and Kennedy. Kennedy has dropped out, as has Joe Biden.
It is now Trump and Harris and we will do
our final, our eighth poll during the eleven o'clock hour.
But before we do that, I'm delighted to have back
a regular guest in this program, my great friend Ken
(01:18):
Gloss of the Bradle Bookshop, and we're going to talk
about a couple of book events coming up in Boston
won this weekend and a bigger one next weekend. And
also Ken Gloss has always been willing to share with
us some books or some manuscripts that he has recently
had his hands on, and he's also willing to give
(01:42):
you an idea if you have a rare book or
a rare manuscript in your possession. Ken, welcome back to
Night Side. How are you, sir?
Speaker 3 (01:52):
I'm fine, and it's a lot of fun to be
back and talk with you, and looking forward to these
books events, which of course I'm very involved with. But
it's just really good talking with you. It always is, well, Ken.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
I think if I could call anyone a bibliophile, it
would be you. You love books. You've spent your entire life
surrounded by books, and basically you have made a life
associated with books. And what a wonderful life you have
(02:31):
you have had and that you continue to have followed
in your dad's footsteps the Brattle Bookshop, and many people
used to get confused you're on West Street, You're not
on Brattle Street. But I know there was a point
in time. What is the derivation of the Brattle Bookshop?
Was it at some point?
Speaker 3 (02:49):
Well, what happened was in nineteen forty nine my parents
were getting married. The Brattle Bookshop, which actually you can
trace back to the eighteen twenties, was literally going back
out of business, and my mother had five hundred dollars
and with that they bought half interest. Now, the thing
about Brattle Street, which was where the bookstore was, there
(03:13):
was a small street in what was Scarley Square of
Boston called Brattle Street. And to make it even more confusing,
the street doesn't exist anymore. It's where City Hall Plaza
is now noticed Scary Square.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
And all the entertainment that ensued there.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
All the entertainment then, very interesting entertainment. I have to
admit I was way too young to take part. I
just heard about it all.
Speaker 2 (03:43):
Yes, me too, But no street, the more famous Brattle
Street in Cambridge.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Well, what I had to do was in the early
seventeen hundreds in Boston, We'll go back a few years
to get the story. There was a very very rich
merchant named Thomas Braddell. He had some land in Boston,
and he owned an awful lot of land in Cambridge.
Thus Brattle Street in Cambridge, and that's where the name
(04:12):
comes from, a very rich Bostonian in the early seventeen hundreds.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Wow, that gets us back aways. So for people who
don't understand that, oftentimes you find your inventory. If you
want to go find a New York Times current bestseller,
you probably go to Amazon. You probably go to if
there are any Barnes and Nobles left bookstores. So that's
(04:41):
not what you deal in. You deal in books that
you have bought from families or from estate sales, and
people go and browse your bookstore like crazy. You're on
West Street in Boston.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
Yeah. Well, it's actually very interesting. One of the things
that people don't realize about the business. So and they
picture someone in the book business sitting behind talking with
people about books, but they don't think of is we
just moved twenty thousand books out of someone's house in
one of the Boston suburbs. I was in Connecticut two
(05:20):
days ago moving about two thousand books. In Maine yesterday
moving a thousand or more. And it's really a physical
job too. But it's also it's the hunt. It's the search.
It's sort of like being Jim Hawkins on Treasure Island,
never knowing quite what you're going to meet. And most
(05:41):
people who are interested in books are interesting people. So
you meet a lot of real characters and fun people
and brilliant and that's one of the joys of the
whole business too.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
So give us the name, and we're going to obviously
talk about these book fairs that are coming up, the
one this weekend and the one next weekend. And I
also do want to encourage people if they'd like to
call in and inquire if they have some manuscript or
book and that of years past, and they would love
you to venture an estimatest of with the value of that.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
And you never know, you never know what's been sitting around.
Because just recently a colleague of mine, I do the
Antiques bro Show, I've done that for over twenty years,
but a colleague in North Carolina was at an estate.
Really nice to say to North Carolina. They were looking
through furniture that was over two hundred years old. They
(06:39):
opened up one of the draws. There was a piece
of paper in the draw. That piece of paper was
an early, very early printing of the Constitution. It went
up for auction, and so over nine million dollars. So
that had been sitting in a probably a piece of
furniture for two hundred thirty or forty years, and all
(07:02):
of a sudden it was found. And so that can happen.
It is unusual though, but a lot of it is
just you know, people have sod.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Let me ask you. You said, you, colleague, that was
he in the in the process of buying the furniture,
or was he at the estate sale and going through
the home and figuring out what he wanted to purchase.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
No, he wasn't. He was in there as an appraiser.
Now there was the estate and the lawyers had called
him in to look through the furniture, look through all
the objects. He wasn't an expert in books and manuscripts,
but he was very knowledgeable. So when he spotted it,
he knew, wait a minute, this is something we've got
(07:47):
to get people in and really look at. And obviously
everybody was sort of taken aback and surprised. And you know,
it still happens.
Speaker 2 (07:58):
I mean, if I'm not mistaken, the number of original
declarations of independence and constitutions. They pretty much of you know,
the original documents. They have some I think estimate as
to how many of those remain in existence. And it's
(08:18):
it's it's not a big figure in either within either group.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Correct, it's in the twenties and thirties. The Constitution is
even rarer. I mean, it's a piece of paper, you know,
and it's a piece of paper, and it's well over
two hundred something years old. And the other thing about
them is a lot of the copies that you hear
about or can see or view are in institutional library
(08:46):
state underglass, not only under glass, but you know they're
never going to come up for sale or be available
to the public, so you know it's one. So that's
an extreme example, although I have to admit I one
time got called in to do an appraisal and I
(09:08):
wasn't told about what the appraisal was going to be
ahead of time. I walked in a building basement, folding
table fluorescent lighting, and there was a copy of the
Bill of Rights, the Pilgrim chartter and a copy a
printed copy of the Declaration. But at the top it
(09:28):
said this is a true and authentic copy in ink,
signed John Hancock, and I wasn't and I will admit
I put my little finger on each one of them,
and I remember putting my finger on a more. Now
those are in the Massachusetts State Archives at the museum
near the Kennedy, but I saw them before they ended
(09:49):
up under glass. And when you talk about thrills, that's
one of them.
Speaker 2 (09:55):
Unbelievable. My guest is Ken Gloss, you'd like to join
the conversation. We're going to talk about a couple of
events coming up which are open to the public. Uh.
And if you are a bibliophile or someone of that interest,
you you're going to be and you're going to enjoy
this next hour. I know my friend David Breadnoy, one
of my predecessors in this this night side at what
(10:18):
was it was called the David Brudnoy Show at the time,
but in this time frame at WBZ, was has an
extraordinary capacity to read and absorb information, and of course
he was a writer as well as a reader. I'm
not close to where David Brudnoy was, but I do
have more than a passing interest in books and a
(10:38):
friendship with Ken Gloss that goes back many years. He's
a great guy to deal with. If you have something
in your possession that you'd like to ask him about,
feel free to join the conversation At six one, seven, two, five,
four ten thirty six one seven, nine three one ten
thirty we get back. We'll talk more with Ken Uh
and also talk about these two events, one that that
(10:59):
starts this weekend here in Boston and one that is
a big, big event next weekend. We'll get to all
of that. Feel free to participate. Make this a conversation
that involves you as well. We'll be back on night's
side with Ken Gloss of the Brattle Bookshop on West
Street in downtown Boston after this.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Now back to Dan ray Line from the Window World
Nights six studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
My guest is Ken Gloss to the Bradle Bookshop. So Ken,
let's talk the event this weekend and the event next weekend.
Let's start with this weekend. I assume both of these
are open to the public. There may be an admission charge,
but let's talk about this weekend first.
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Well, well, first of all, they're both definitely open to
the public. Matter of fact, we love the public to
come because those are the people that we've won an
interest in get reading and collecting and so on. So
the one this week weekend is called the Boston Book Festival.
It's mostly new books and a lot of authors centralized
(12:07):
write in Copley Square. It's free, there's no charge at all.
We have a booth right in front of the Boston
Public Library. We're probably the only ones really bringing old
We wanted to represent the old books and the older items,
whereas most of the others speakers, thousands of people come.
(12:33):
Copley Square is humming with literature, young children's authors, major authors,
and it's going to be a beautiful day. It's outdoors
and then in a lot of the buildings of churches
and so.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
On in the area.
Speaker 3 (12:49):
Right, I mean, if you're going to be in the
Boston area, definitely get by Copley Square tomorrow and I'll
tell you that this fare it's been going for I'm
not sure fifteen twenty years now, and they've had good
weather almost every single year. So that's the Heavens is
saying it's something to go and see, and we will
(13:11):
be representative there and we're bringing in this fair. We
don't bring our rare items. We bring general books, some history,
We bring this year. I think a lot of the
sort of older nineteen forties and fifties paperbacks with the
lurid covers and stories more general outdoor pick up a book, geeve,
(13:35):
you can look and collect. And then what we also
do is try to encourage a lot of the people
and new books say hey, there's going to be an
old and rare book show coming up in a few
weeks too. So it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
So the event tomorrow, it sounds to me like it's
set up in that park that is really Copley Square,
but you're not on the on the steps of the
Public Library, and you're not at the front of the
complete Plaza hotel. You're in that that public space.
Speaker 3 (14:04):
Correct, well, the public space is being redone right now,
that big park. So literally we're on the sidewalk in
front of the Boston Public Library. The old yeah, right
right on there is where it is it used to
be in that park, but the park's being renovated.
Speaker 2 (14:25):
And then a lot of the oftentimes Dartmouth Street is
closed to traffic. It is so is it closed to traffic,
it will be closed.
Speaker 3 (14:34):
It will be closed to traffic tomorrow. They have I
think a few food trucks, but then they have a
lot of lectures that again you can go into the
churches in the area. And it's just a really fun, light,
easy event where people are just trying to promote literacy,
(14:56):
reading and uh and how could we not be at
some thing that's that's showing books And we've done it
since it first started and it's a fabulous event.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
So okay, so let's talk about the big event, which
is the following weekend, Friday, the eight of November through
Sunday the tenth. That's at the Heinz Convention Center in
downtown Boston right by they share the Sheridan Boston Hotel.
Speaker 3 (15:23):
Yeah, and that's and that's an event that I think
it's in the forty seventh or eighth year in Boston.
The organization is seventy five years old, but it's it's
about one hundred one hundred plus dealers from all over
the world, from Europe, some from the Eastern Europe, Great Britain,
(15:46):
tell then all over the United States. Dealers come and
they have basically old or rare but almost any area
of subject that you can think of.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Uh.
Speaker 3 (15:58):
Friday, it's I think from four to eight and there
is a twenty five dollars admission charge. But I'll tell
you a secret. If any of you people listening now
want to go to the Friday night opening, I'll bet
you if they got in touch with me, I could
come up with comp tickets for them. I made sure
to have a bunch.
Speaker 2 (16:17):
Okay, But then you may stop by.
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Or call or email or something, and we'll make sure
they get them.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
And we'll give that information at the end of the hour,
so that people have a chance to get a piece
of paper, a pencil, and we'll give them your email
or a phone number where they could reach out to
the bookshop.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
Absolutely, and then Saturday and Sunday it's free. There's no
admission charge because we don't want to discourage people from
coming in and looking. And a lot of people they
go to a show like or they hear about it
and they think it's very erudite and they think that,
you know how I would we be interested. But it
covers almost every subject that you can think of, and
(17:01):
not everything is high priced. Matter of fact, we make
an effort to have a lot of the dealers to
have things under one hundred dollars, just so it's a
little more accessible, matter of fact, to give you an idea.
And this is when we have some speakers, maybe one
you know, Dick Johnson over at the Sports Museum. He's
going to be speaking on Sunday. But one of the
(17:24):
things that I was saying I'm hoping to get before
the fair that I thought would interest you. I am
trying to buy an eighteen nineties photograph of the Boston
Latin School baseball team.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
But you know I did not play on that team.
I want you to know that that was before my time.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Well, I was more likely to root for the team
when you were there than I was at this one.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
You know.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
But it's things come in like that.
Speaker 1 (17:58):
Now.
Speaker 3 (17:59):
There will be letters of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, There'll
be cookbooks signed by Julia Child. One of the things
I know that I'm bringing is a program from the
from the nineteen twelve World Series first year at Gunway Park,
Red Sox win the World Series. Se Yeah, and a
(18:22):
program from it. Also, I have a promotional brochure for
Titanic if you want to go on a cruise, I
don't recommend it, but I have the brochure for it.
So all of that is there and if someone comes
in and you know, maybe you're going out Saturday night,
or you're around Sunday afternoon, maybe you don't want to
(18:45):
watch the Patriots game or something like that. You can
come there spend an hour or two. And I think
most people, if they figure they're going to spend an hour,
they end up at three to four. And you can
actually touch these things. Another book that I know someone
is bringing, let me.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Ask you that there's a question, ken that I have,
and that is the how tight is the security at
this It is the forty sixth Boston International Antiquarian Book Fair,
and again November eighth to the tenth at the Hinz
Convention Center, you know, very you know, conveniently located on
(19:23):
Boylston Street, right, you know, sort of the back of
the Sheridan Boston Hotel lost the Sheridan Hotel whatever they
call it these days. How tight is the security when
some of the documents of the papers that you suggest
are there, I mean all.
Speaker 3 (19:39):
There worth thousands of dollars and tens of thousands. Well,
first of all, there is a co check. You can't
bring bags in. There are security guards checking when you
leave the you know that you have receipts and so on.
But each deal has a booth and you have your
(20:00):
people in the booth.
Speaker 2 (20:02):
You got to you gotta be Obviously, none of my
audience is going to go there and try to do
anything illegal. Ken, I'm going to take a very quick
got to take you a very quick break here because
because of all of the the activity tonight in the
Middle East, we're expecting a CBS special news report. My
guest is Ken Gloss or the Brattle Bookshop. If you
want to join the conversation, you have the numbers. But
(20:22):
before we get back to Ken, this is a special
news report from CBS on the Middle East.
Speaker 1 (20:27):
You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on WBZ, Boston's
news radio.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
My guest is Ken Glass, Ken Gloss of the Brattle Bookshop,
and we are talking about a couple of events coming
up tomorrow and next weekend. The event tomorrow is in
Copley Square in Boston, uh in front of the Boston
Public Library that Ken talked about it. And then the
book fair the forty six is an international into Boston
(20:58):
International Interquarian Book Fair from November eighth to the tenth.
Next next weekend at the Hinds Convention Center. Again, Ken
said that the admission charge tomorrow, there's no admission charge,
and there is an admission charge to the event on
Friday night, but there was there's no admission charge for
(21:23):
Saturday and Sunday. But Ken said that he might be
able to get a few comp tickets. So if you're
interested for next Friday night, Ken will give it an
address an email later on during this hour, which will
which he gets you in there. Ken, before we get
the phone calls, I have a question, and it's it's
(21:43):
kind of a general question, but I think you could
probably answer it. I know that if if there was ever,
say a book of Abraham Lincoln that had some relationship
to Lincoln that he signed, or a book signed by
George Washington, or for that matter, a book signed by
Franklin Roosevelt, it would be of a gnomeous value. But give
(22:05):
us an idea if someone wanted to, say, to try
to build a collection of some books signed by presidents.
I'm not talking about again the Superstar Press. I'm talking
about a Franklin Pierce, Martin van Buren, Rutherford B. Hayes,
or something like that. I'm in many of those books
from the presidents of the nineteenth century, maybe the early
(22:29):
twentieth century that are are available, and if so, what
would it cost to build a you know, a small
library of a presidential library that you would never have
a hope of having a Washington book or obviously there's
no there's no autobiography of Abraham Lincoln signed because obviously
he never wrote an autobiography. What what would a book
(22:52):
signed by I don't know, James Buchanan or someone you
know that area, Zachary Taylor or someone like that, a
lesser known US president Benjamin Harrison. How much how much
would a book like that be worth?
Speaker 3 (23:08):
They can probably range anywhere from four or five hundred
to maybe one thousand and fifteen hundred, depends on what
the book is, how it signed. Also would depend what
it signed when they were president, which collectors prefer as
opposed to before or after. So you know, you can
get all sorts of variations on that, but no, they're
(23:32):
out there. Actually, a really interesting one that sells for
maybe around fifteen one hundred of dollars is a Life
of Franklin Pierce. But one of the reasons that one's
collected it was written by Nathaniel Hawthorn. He wrote the
campaign biography for Pierce, and what do you know, he
(23:54):
got a government job after that, Halikan did.
Speaker 2 (23:58):
And so the the books are about Pierce, written by Hawthorne,
signed by Peers.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
Yeah, fifteen twenty five hundred. Now the other thing that you've.
Speaker 2 (24:11):
Had, of course, is in New England from New Hampshire.
Speaker 3 (24:14):
Is New Hampshire, so that would be an interesting but yeah,
the lesser known presidents there's less demand. And yeah, you
could in the mid hundreds to mid thousands you could
get most everything. And if you're looking to collect modern presidents,
I mean Jimmy Potter wrote a lot of books and
signed them, Gerald Ford Bush, you know a lot of
(24:38):
those you can get in a few hundreds of dollars.
You know, it depends on what the news is. Kennedy
is higher, but Truman, Eisenhower, they're all, you know, relatively
within range and.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
That and how do you reach how if you if
you're someone who's a novice and is starting off and saying, look,
I want to have a book or two in my
library that actually signed by a former president. Are they
websites or would they go through someone like you and say, hey,
can you direct me, you tell me, tell me what
(25:17):
would be how would someone proceed?
Speaker 3 (25:19):
Well? What I yes, they can always get in touch
with me, and I can always point them in the
right direction or have things. It's one of the things
is they could go to the book fair on through
A through the tenth, and I guarantee you there will
be dealers there with a fair number of signed presidential books,
(25:40):
not only the Washington's and the Lincoln's, which there are
signed books, but the more modern presidents and those dealers
a lot of them will bring some of their better
material to this fair. But they'll say, Okay, back at
the shop or so on, we have this, this, this,
We'll send you an email. Cattle. They're out there, they're available.
(26:03):
People collect them.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
They cherish. What type of a book would have Washington
affixed his signature to.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Well, he actually signed most of the books that he
had in his library at Mount Vernon and those so
it's not just books that he wrote or had, it
just books that he that belonged to him. Jeff Yah, Yeah,
the Jefferson, the same thing. Lincoln. One of the ones
(26:33):
that you can that as high up there is the
Lincoln Douglas Debates, which was some of the most famous
debates in presidential history. Now those runs into the tens
of thousands of dollars or more, but they're out there.
They signed them. People were wanting autographs going right back
(26:54):
to the early parts of this country.
Speaker 2 (26:56):
Uh, how do you know that you're getting a book
that was actually signed? Uh you know, you you have
no way of knowing that. You know, with a lot
of uh, you know, baseball signatures there there there's letters
of authenticity that come with a ball signed by Nicky
Nantel and they have people who know the signature. Is
(27:17):
that the same procedure with books?
Speaker 3 (27:19):
Percential it's you don't get the letters of authenticity as much.
It's not as general as the sports. But there are
people who this is their specialty. They've been doing this
for years and years, very very good reputations. And if
someone came to me asked, I could point them in
(27:40):
the right direction. And also, uh, this organization that puts
this on the interquarm booksellers, it's a vetted organization. It
takes four or five years to get in. So there
are things and then quite honestly, even the best experts
can make them as and that can happen, but as
(28:03):
soon as they realized they've made a mistake, they will refund, rectify,
get you what you needed. And that's almost as important
as you know that. Don't stand behind it.
Speaker 2 (28:18):
All right, Let's get to a couple of phone calls here.
If you have an item you'd like to discuss with
Ken Gloss of any written material, whether it's a book,
a letter, or a manuscript of some sort. Let me
go first off to Sandra in Carver. Sandra, you are
next on night Side with Ken Gloss.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
Go ahead, Sandra, Okay, thank you for taking my call.
And I just have a couple of questions. I do
have a book here. I believe I talked to Brattle
Street book Shop several years ago about this book.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
No Street, it's just brattle Bookshop book right, I bike
rode down Bridle Street and it went a few years back.
Speaker 4 (29:04):
But anyways, in one of the little pages here it says,
presented to blank it's No Name by the Church of
the Incarnation, New York, Christmas eighteen eighty two.
Speaker 3 (29:17):
And what's the title of the book.
Speaker 4 (29:19):
It's Tennyson's first edition all his works.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
And where where was it printed? Do you have it
in front of you? What's the I have the book
right here.
Speaker 4 (29:31):
Let me just look New York Richard Worthington, seven to
seven Old Broadway.
Speaker 3 (29:40):
Okay, well, see that's one of the reasons I asked
that is Tennyson was the poet Laureate of England. His
first editions were done in England, they weren't New York.
So what you have there is probably a very nice
old edition, but not the first or rare. You know,
(30:03):
probably something that's in the ten to twenty five dollar range,
and a lot of times when it says presented to
it might have been something that was sold by the
church or something in that range. But it is not
a first edition because he was English in his first
editions were done in London Indonesia.
Speaker 4 (30:25):
The person who gave me this book, that's what they
told me. And I do have another little book if
the World Atlas dated nineteen eighteen, pretty good condition.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
World Atlases nineteen eighteen is during the war, and so
people tend to look more at atlases during the war.
They like them better. You also tend to see, especially
when you get to Europe in that area, how borderlines
are changing from time to time. The politics change, the
war changes things. But nineteen eighteen, though it's over one
(31:01):
hundred years old for Atlas, isn't that rare? So you're
probably talking twenty five fifty dollars at best. What you
want to get is back into the seventeen sixteen, fifteen hundreds,
and that's where the countries and the maps start looking
a lot different, and that's where the collectors really go
(31:21):
after them.
Speaker 2 (31:23):
Ra hope that hope that helps.
Speaker 4 (31:26):
Yeah, I was just curious. I have a couple of
other books, but I couldn't dig them out.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
But not a problem. We'll have Ken Gloss on again.
Thank you, Sandra, I gotta check the break here, Okay,
thank you.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
Mich Thank you, bye bye.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
We'll try to get a couple more calls in if
you stick with us. It is now six one, seven, two,
five four ten thirty six month seven nine three one
ten thirty. What happens Ken in these situations If people
start to call, then the phone's light up and we'll
be here all night. But we're gonna keep cam with
us until eleven o'clock. We'll try to get everyone in.
We'll be back on night's side with some more with
(31:58):
Ken Gloss right after a couple of messages.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
Now back to Dan Ray live from the Window World
night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2 (32:09):
All right, let me get to back to the call.
As my guest is Ken Gloss. Let me go to
Florence and Groveland, Florence. You are on with Ken Gloss.
Go right ahead, Florence. What's your question? What item would
you like Ken to evaluate for you? Go ahead?
Speaker 5 (32:22):
Yeah, I've got an item, Ken, And I just wanted
to mention before I mentioned my item, Ken, I am
related to Franklin Pius on my dad's.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
Okay books, Florence, go.
Speaker 5 (32:42):
Ahead, He didn't, but I'm an aviderator. Ken. My book
I have my mother gave me a while back. It's
the a copy I guess of the Scarlet Letter. It
made it copyright nineteen twenty nine, and I was just
(33:05):
wondering about it. The book is is old but very legible,
and it has those very fine silky pages, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (33:19):
Paper, Okay, tent tent.
Speaker 2 (33:21):
Keen is going to be able to give you. My
guess is that the Scarlett Letter was around well before that.
And oh yeah, I might be disappointed with what Ken
has to say.
Speaker 5 (33:30):
Go ahead, Ken, Well you be rich to know.
Speaker 2 (33:34):
Hold on, Hold on Fla, just hold on, let's give
let's give kenn a shot here and then.
Speaker 3 (33:39):
You can still doing. The Scarlet Letter was done in
the eighteen fifties, so if you had nineteen twenties, that's
a good seventy years after. So it's old for years.
But for Scarlet Letter, not that old. But the Scarlet
Letter is a classic. It was done in hundreds of
different edition and some of the ones were made as
(34:02):
sort of gifts with very nice pages and so on.
But they're not terribly valuable. Probably again in the ten
twenty five dollar range. You just have to get one
another seventy years.
Speaker 5 (34:15):
Older, okay, all right, it's not as though you could
purchase one now, you know, the nineteen twenty nine days.
Speaker 2 (34:29):
Yeah, they're probably.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
Yeah, you definitely could find them and uh and you
can find the others too. But it's it's interesting, it's fun,
but not not terribly valuable.
Speaker 2 (34:44):
All right, Thanks very much, Florence, and thanks for the
comments about Franklin Pierce.
Speaker 5 (34:49):
Yank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
Let me go next to Matt mad you're on with
ken Glass so the Bridle Bookshop. Go ahead, Matt, all.
Speaker 3 (34:56):
Right, real quick.
Speaker 6 (34:57):
So I appreciate the time I actually authenticate for JSA,
James Spence for sports. Now I have an item from
Edgar Allen Poe that's a cut, a cut signature that
has passed JSA and also Beckett Pending as real. What
(35:22):
value is that? Looking at roughly, if it's just a.
Speaker 3 (35:27):
Cut signature without anything beyond that, you're probably talking in
the five to five hundred to a few thousand dollars,
depending on how doc, how bold you know, if there's
any fading or some one in that range. Poll letters
can go for thousands and thousands of dollars. But what
really determines the value is the content of the letter,
(35:51):
and that's what the collectors who are really looking for
it looking for or assigned a book the cut signature.
What people usually will do with that is get an
old engraving, frame it up and you know, once to
a store, you might be talking a few thousand dollars,
(36:12):
but the frame itself could cost four or five hundred.
So in that ballpark, that's cool.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
That's cool, all.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Right, So you know, congratulations on that. That's yeah, No,
I mean it's it's it's a great I would say,
probably hold on to it for now. If you with
if you had a letter with which was a legitimate
Edgar Allen Pole letter, Uh, talking about Lamar Jackson. That
(36:49):
would be worth a hell of a lotta time the
current quarterback for the Baltimore Ravens, who obviously are named
after the poem, The Ravens. Thank you, Thank you, my friend. Okay,
(37:10):
you know, go ahead.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
I was gonna say one of the things that when
you're authenticating and looking letters, especially when it's a letter,
is beyond even the signature you look historically, does it
make sense? Was the person alive when this was written?
Speaker 2 (37:28):
Was? You know?
Speaker 3 (37:30):
Can it make sense? And that's part of the authentication
process too.
Speaker 2 (37:34):
Yeah, he would not have ever written a letter about
Lamar Jackson or for that matter, the Baltimore Ravens.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Anyway, very much.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
That's easy, Yeah, yeah, I just had to have some
fun with it, that's all. So, how can folks get
in touch with you? Particularly? You were very gracious to
offer the possibility of getting people tickets to the to
the Friday night of the forty six lost at International Antiquarium,
which is a twenty five dollars ticket. What's the best
(38:06):
way they can read you this week?
Speaker 3 (38:07):
Well, you can always go to our website Bradlebookshop dot com,
and it's all of the contact information is there. I mean,
I would love it if you could come into the
store and we could show you around, if you said
you heard me on night side, if I'm there, I'll
give you a tour and explain things. But and if
(38:27):
you called the store, we you know, and I knew
you were coming an email. I could just put some
tickets aside for you. But I really encourage you. If
you have any inkling in history and sports and collectable books,
autograph this show at the Hinds the eighth through the tenth.
You'll love it. Even if you don't think you'll love it,
(38:48):
you'll love it.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Yeah, it's the real It is the real deal. Ken
Gloss is always your one of my my most fascinating guests.
Your your depth and breadth of knowledge about politics, literature,
sports is unbelievable. Thank you, my friend. We will talk soon, okay.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
And thank you, and I really appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Thank you, Dan Ken Gloss of Brattle Bookshop on West
Street in Boston, not to be confused with Brattle Street
anywhere else. Thanks Ken. We'll talk soon when we come back.
Our final twenty twenty presidential poll. I want to know
if the election were held today and it's only a
couple of week and a half away or so, now,
(39:29):
who would be your candidate. We've done this. This will
be our eighth month. We do the twentieth hour the
last Friday of the month. It happens to be the
twenty fifth of October. We will not have another last
Friday of the month before November fifth. So dial away.
If you called earlier this week you get a hall passed,
you can call in this hour as well and tell us.
(39:50):
You can tell us who you think will win and
who you're going to vote for, And in most cases
it's probably pretty similar. If you want to tell us
who you're going to vote for, but you don't think
that person's going to win, that would be an interesting
issue as well. Six one, seven, two, five, four ten
thirty six one seven, nine three one ten thirty Back
after the eleven o'clock news
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