Gloss comes to Amherst to talk about old and rare books

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Courtesy photo Ken Gloss, owner of the Brattle Book Shop.

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IF YOU GO

“Is There Value in Your Old and Rare Books,” a talk by Kenneth Gloss

WHEN: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9.

WHERE: Amherst Town Library, 14 Main St.

COST: Free.

MORE INFORMATION: Call 673-2288 or visit www.amherst.lib.nh.us.

Kenneth Gloss has books in his blood.

Gloss, the second-generation proprietor of the famous Brattle Book Shop in Boston, has an overriding passion for the printed page. He’ll be sharing that passion with like-minded enthusiasts at the Amherst Town Library on Tuesday, Feb. 9, when he’ll host a talk, “Is There Value in Your Old and Rare Books?”

“I like to think I give a very entertaining and informative talk,” Gloss said. “And, of course, there’s the question-and-answer period, where people bring in their own books. They like to find out how much they are worth, and also look at what everyone else has brought in.”

The Brattle Book Shop, founded in 1825, is one of the oldest antiquarian bookstores in the nation.

“The store was essentially going out of business in 1949,” Gloss said, “so my father bought a half share in it for about $500. Back then, it was situated on Brattle Street in Scollay Square, but they cleared all that out in the early 1960s. Brattle Street doesn’t even exist anymore; that’s where City Hall is now.”

George Gloss was a well-known figure in both Boston and international antiquarian circles. Whereas the older Gloss was an avid collector – his son estimated he often brought home four or five books a day – Kenneth was set on pursuing a doctorate in chemistry.

He soon found that the lure of the shelves was irresistible, however, and took over the business after his father’s demise.

The store moved to seven locations over the years, eventually settling in on West Street.

“We had a 150-year-old building,” Gloss said, “but that burned down in early 1980. We acquired the store next door, and have been here ever since.”

Gloss approaches his avocation with a sense of glee that’s catching.

“You never know what you’re going to find in an old house, a basement or an attic,” he said. “Last year, we bought out the estate of a Harvard professor. He had over 20,000 books in one small apartment. You literally couldn’t move around in there.”

Frequently, the volumes that appear to be the most mundane can hold hidden treasures.

“We had a copy of Jackie Robinson’s autobiography, for instance,” Gloss said. “Inside was a long inscription by Robinson himself, thanking a family for letting him live with them for a year and a half while he was trying to get settled in New York.

“Then, there was a book about George Gershwin, where he didn’t know what to inscribe, so he put down about four bars of music.”

Aside from books, Gloss also deals in magazines, brochures, maps and personal correspondence, some of which can be quite startling.

“Right after September 11, 2001, I came upon a letter by Thomas Jefferson,” he said. “Jefferson was discussing, ironically, how to deal with terrorists, in his case, during the War of 1812. His position was that terrorists should be given full protection of the law – no more, no less.”

Another find astonished Gloss so much that he agreed to waive his appraisal fee.

“It was a two-page account of Paul Revere’s ride, written in his own hand,” Gloss said. “I told them I would do it for nothing, just so long as I got to touch the actual document.

“That’s what’s incredible about this profession – you come across historical artifacts like that, and it’s mind-blowing that they even exist.”

Another amazing find came up because of a homeowner’s need for house repairs.

“The lady wanted to fix her roof,” Gloss said. “I looked over her books and gave her a fair price. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to cover the construction, so I asked her if I could look in two bookcases that we hadn’t explored. She insisted there was nothing of value in them, but relented.

“That’s when I found the five volumes of Robert Frost poems. Inside each one, he had written the stanza of a poem, increasing the value of the books astronomically. Needless to say, she got her roof repaired.”

Our talk turned to the book “Tamerlane,” easily one of the rarest volumes around. Written by Edgar Allan Poe at the beginning of his career, it cited authorship to simply “a Bostonian.”

“You wouldn’t look at it twice,” Gloss said. “It’s really a small, unremarkable, rather dingy book. I bring a facsimile copy of it with me on these talks to illustrate how something that can look completely mundane can be really valuable.”

And that leads us directly to a valuable lesson Gloss has learned over the years.

“I never try to show off,” he said. “One time, when I was hosting a show, a couple was waiting in line with a really badly beat-up copy of ‘Catcher in the Rye.’ I knew that, even if it were a first edition, it would never fetch a good price in that condition.

“Upon examining it, however, I found that there was a long inscription on the inside cover by J.D. Salinger himself. Consequently, the book was worth about $35,000.”

Gloss has also been a guest on PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow.”

“I’ve been doing that for about 10 or 12 years, and actually, I’m on it this week,” he revealed . He basically performs the same service as he does in his talks.

“The talk lasts about an hour,” he said. “I always know what I’m going to say in the first half hour, but then the audience shows me what they’ve brought with them. That’s when the fun begins.”

Gloss said he was initially astonished when clients expressed relief upon being told that their book wasn’t particularly valuable.

“It turned out that they wanted to hand it down to their grandchildren – maybe have them take it to show-and-tell – and that wouldn’t be practical if it were worth a lot of money,” he said. “Of course, if it turned out to be worth thousands of dollars – well, that’s a whole other story.”

One book that generally doesn’t accrue a lot of value is The Bible.

“There are just so many of them,” Gloss said. “Every family had its own copy, and sometimes they’d write family histories in the open spaces at the end of the chapters. For local historical research, they can be very valuable indeed, but that’s about it.”

Gloss also stresses that, even if people can’t make it to the show, they can still avail themselves of his appraisal services.

“You can always visit my Web site, www.brattlebookshop.com, or come into the store in Boston. We’ll do anything we can to help.”

As he is at the store promptly at 6 every morning, Gloss looks forward to each day as an adventure.

“My wife jokes that I only work half days – 12 hours,” he said. “But you know, I almost feel like Jim Hawkins in ‘Treasure Island.’ I just never know what I’m going to find next.”