Boston's Best Bookstore

Randall Stephens

Coming to the 2011 AHA in Boston? Have a moment or two to spare? Check out the Brattle Book Shop, near the Downtown Crossing and Park Street T stops. The store is one of the oldest in the country and is brimming with books, old and new. Sections on 19th-century history, European studies, Asian history, New England history, religious history, African-American studies, ethnicity, political science, and on and on line what seem like miles of shelf space.

I’m particularly fond of the outdoor area, which contains thousands of books for as little as $1 to $5 each. (See the video I shot, embedded below.) That space is open all year round, only closing when it rains or snows. (After a long Boston walk with my border collie Beatrice, I’ll peruse titles until Bea begins to whimper out of sheer boredom.)

As Beatrice waits impatiently, I’ve been surprised by how many great history titles I’ve found outside. I’ve picked up books there by Allan Nevins, Oscar Handlin, Gordon Wood, Pauline Maier, Patricia Bonomi, and many more. Also, I’ve been happy to track down unusual 19th-century travel accounts, memoirs, primary source collections, and all manner of biographies.

Brattle Book Shop is real must-see for history bibliophiles!

I asked Ken Gloss, proprietor, about his store and what a history professor, grad student, or history enthusiast might find there.

Randall Stephens: What makes the Brattle Book Shop unique? What would you say are some of its most distinctive features?

Kenneth Gloss: The Brattle Book Shop can be traced back to the 1820s and it’s been in my family since 1949. It is a Dickensian-style store. The outside stands hold about 2,000+ books at $1, $3, and $5. We have two floors of general used books, and a third floor with rare books, 1st editions, leather-bound volumes, manuscripts, etc.

We go to estates throughout New England almost every day. It is like being Jim Hawkins on Treasure Island finding great books and libraries and then bringing them back to the shop.

You never know what is new to the shop on

any given day.

Stephens: What sort of clientele do you serve? Does the Brattle Book Shop have a typical customer?

Gloss: We have every type of customer you can imagine. We’ve got street people who buy from our $1 tables, collectors who spend large sums on rare letters, manuscripts, rare editions, and the customer who just wants a hard-to-find volume. They are young, old, male, female, regular, one-time, compulsive, and interesting. We have one customer who comes in every day and calls in sick when he cannot get in.

Stephens: Many historians that I know keep an eye out for that gem of a book. What sorts of books at Brattle would catch the eye of a historian on the lookout for a bargain or a rarity?

Gloss: We buy and put out books each day. Many of those are by amateur historians, professors, and writers. So you never know what will be on the shelves. That is what keeps people coming. There are also many, many bargains.

Art of the Americas

Randall Stephens

The Boston MFA opens its new Art of the Americas Wing this week. (Watch a video on the space.) The extension represents the most significant public art project in America today. With a price tag of over $500 million, it will display a portion of the museum's massive South and North American collections. It ranges from the pre-Columbia to the 20th century. Some critics have complained that the wing will lack some of the MFA's best post-war pieces. That seems like a minor issue though.

WBUR reports:

And while this is a big cultural moment for Boston, the rest of the world is paying attention, too.

“Museums all over the country have expanded over the last decades and this is the MFA’s entry in the ‘space race,’ ” said arts writer Judith Dobrzynski, who has reported on the MFA’s expansion for the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

“And because it’s a beautiful space, and because it’s chock-a-block with art from the Americas, which is different. This is very important and I think it probably going to raise the profile and the stature of the MFA.”

Dobrzynski is impressed by the MFA’s fundraising effort, and the $504 million represents a feat for Boston. Other cities — bigger cities, she said — including Los Angeles and Chicago, have not been as successful in raising money for their own museum campaigns. Or as strategic. The MFA’s new construction cost about $340 million — much of the rest sits in an endowment. “You know the MFA was very ambitious here,” she said, laughing, “but at the same time a bit conservative by going for a building fund and an endowment fund at the same time. I shouldn’t say conservative. I should say responsible here.”>>>

As far as North American artists, highlights will likely include:

Washington Allston
John Singer Sargent
Gilbert Stuart
Frederic Edwin Church
Martin Johnson Heade
Fitz Henry Lane
Thomas Eakins
John Singleton Copley
Childe Hassam
Frank Benson
Edmund Tarbell
Winslow Homer
Mary Cassatt
Ellen Day Hale
Gretchen Rogers
Lilian Westcott Hale
Georgia O’Keeffe
Arthur Dove

TV Watch: Brotherhood

The bad boys of Boston are back for a 2nd season on the Showtime cable network. 'Brotherhood' is all about Irish-American family life, politics, and organized crime, and is set in the modern day in Boston, Mass. It is the story of two brothers, Tommy and Michael Caffee, one supposedly a 'good guy' and one the proverbial 'bad boy', but sometimes it becomes hard to tell which is which. The actors who portray these characters are asked to carry the load for the show, and they do it incredibly well. Tommy is played by Jason Clarke. He is a billed as an old-school ward politician who lives by the credo 'loyalty = votes, votes = power'. Tommy will do anything for his family and his constituents, as well as to further his own career, and is extremely loyal on the homefront. Michael is played by Jason Isaacs. The show began last year with his return after seven years from an Irish mob-imposed exile. He quickly exhibits what are billed as 'bull in the china shop' ways of operating in trying to re-establish his mob affiliations and power. Needless to say, having a criminal like Michael as a brother is never a good thing for an ambitious politician like Tommy, and it causes frequent friction between the brothers. The glue that holds their family together is their aging mother Rose Caffee, played by Fionnula Flanagan. She is the atypical Irish family matriarch, trying to keep Tommy's career moving forward and Michael out of trouble as best she can. As in any truly great ensemble piece, the supporting actors have to be very good, and they are in Brotherhood. They include Ethan Embry as Detective Declan Graves, Annabeth Gish as Tommy's wife Eileen Caffee, Tina Benko as Michael's longtime love Kath Parry, Kevin Chapman as Irish mob boss Freddie Cork, and Sopranos veteran Matt Servitto as Tommy's sometime political mentor and sometime rival State House Speaker Donatello. A true-to-life pol/crime/family tale that mixes elements of those Sopranos with the real-life Bulger brothers, Brotherhood is another entertaining cable TV series winner. Click on to the 'TV Watch' label below for writeups on all the series that I have recommended.