Picture this:
It is 1969. The American Counterculture is peaking. Woodstock, Flower Power, and the Beats are upending the stale establishment. You’re high as a kite walking around the streets of Boston and you see a covered wagon coming down the street. Horses, cowboys and the whole bit. From the covered wagon books are being thrown freely. On the side of the wagon it said: “Go West, Booklovers — Go to 5 West Street — Brattle Book Shop.”
Some people might not have recovered.
This was the work of George Gloss, the owner of the Brattle Book Shop. A bookshop “As powerful a beacon to booklovers, local and outlander, as the Athenaeum or the Boston Public Library” says Sam Allis in his piece in the Boston Globe, Secondhand Gold.
During his reign at Brattle from 1949 until his death in 1985 the bookshop moved or was displaced 7 times. Each time the shop moved Gloss gave away his entire stock on the final day. Gloss, “equal parts character and mensch”, sounds like the Bill Veeck of bookselling. The Boston Globe called him “a lively literary landmark in his own right”
Since his death the shop has been run by his son Ken. “Some day, the Brattle Book Shop will be history — neither of Gloss’s daughters is interested in running it — but no time soon.” Like a most true booksellers Gloss says he will retire the day after he dies.
Ken Gloss also says that “within the next five to seven years, 75 percent of used bookstores will be gone…”it’s the real estate and the Internet. What you pay me for is to gather the books together. The Internet does that incredibly efficiently.”
I am not so sure I agree with Gloss’s assessment here. There is very little visual serendipity when looking for books online and the role of a independent bookshop in the community is much more than the gathering of books. The Internet cannot replace the intangibles. It can offer the books but it can’t offer the vibe.
I wonder what his dad would say about this.
Article on the Brattle Book Shop at UMass Magazine