Brattle Book Shop
About
Brattle Book Shop is one of America’s oldest and largest used and antiquarian bookshops, a downtown Boston institution founded in the Cornhill section of the city in 1825. Its three-story building holds two floors of general used books and a third-floor rare book room with first editions, collectibles, and fine leather bindings. In all, the stock tops 250,000 books, maps, prints, postcards, and ephemera across every subject.
The Gloss family has owned the shop since 1949. George Gloss built it up, and his son Ken, the current proprietor, is a past president of the New England chapter of the Antiquarian Booksellers Association of America and sits on the Boston Public Library’s Associate Board. Ken appraises books and libraries for universities, the FBI, and others, appears on Antiques Roadshow, and lectures on the antiquarian book trade to libraries and historical societies.
What to Know
- A separate outdoor lot sells thousands of discounted books from carts, year-round, weather permitting.
- The shop buys books, from single volumes to whole estates, by appointment.
- Staff can supply books to decorate homes, movie sets, and other projects.
- Shoppers can search the online listings or submit a request for a specific book.
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