Today we’re talking about a particularly exciting appraisal: a volume of presidential autographs containing original documents signed by every American president from George Washington through Richard Nixon, with accompanying portraits. How do you even put a price on an item like this? Slowly and carefully. Complete collections of presidential signatures have been compiled before, so our evaluation largely comes down to the documents themselves: their condition, whether they were written while the president was in office, and how interesting or historically significant their content may be. Join us for an up-close look at 200 years of American history on this official new #brattlecast.
Brattlecast #221 - The Toughest to Shed
It’s a common enough predicament that entire self-help books have been written about it: being emotionally terrorized by a piece of household clutter. The hardest items to part with aren’t usually the ones that we love the most, but those that elicit a sticky cocktail of guilt, sentimentality, and superstition: the photographs that feel painful to look at, the once-favorite garment that no longer fits your body or your lifestyle (but what if…!).
In this episode, we’ll talk about the kinds of books that feel straight-up evil to sell, like gifts (especially from the author, with an incriminating personal inscription), things that were cherished by a departed friend or family member, and religious texts. We don’t have too many solutions for this. Even Ken, who gets rid of books for a living, has resorted to the classic strategy of “placing them in the basement and waiting for them to become someone else’s problem” when it comes to certain volumes. Join us for a look at persistent possessions and inadvertent collections on this week’s #brattlecast.
Brattlecast #218 - Robert Frost Inscriptions
In this episode we’re talking about some recent finds that have a lot to tell us about the rare book business. We got a call about some early Robert Frost editions, which are nice but overall more people are selling items like this than buying them these days. The volumes are signed by the author, which is good but not especially rare: Frost was a generous, gregarious person, happy to sign copies of his books for friends, students, and fans. Along with the signatures he wrote out entire stanzas of poems that would be published in later collections, which is great: we have a winner!
Listen to learn more about the kinds of inscriptions that collectors value most, and, if there’s a podcast topic that you’d find valuable, feel free to reach out to us at info@brattlebookshop.com.
Brattlecast #205 - Robert Frost
In this episode we’re talking about a signed copy of Robert Frost’s New Hampshire. This collection contains some of Frost’s best-known poems, including “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” and won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1924. Our volume is part of a special limited edition run of 350 copies, each of which was signed by the author. We’ll use it as a jumping off point into a discussion of what makes a signed book more—or less—valuable: rarity, condition, and the length and complexity of the inscription, among other factors. Plus, we’ll reveal Ken’s unexpected personal connection with Robert Frost in this lyrical new #brattlecast.
Brattlecast #192 - Profiles in Courage
Today in the studio we have a copy of John F. Kennedy’s Profiles in Courage, inscribed by the author to an interesting—but not especially well-known—figure from Boston’s history. We’ll use it as a jumping-off point into a discussion of signatures and inscriptions more generally: some are simply nice to have, others substantially increase the collectibility and value of a volume, and many turn out to be written by a secretary or printed with the book itself. A look at some of the most common and convincing faux signatures rounds out this 100% authentic #brattlecast.