Bonus Brattlecast - Covid Collectables

Like it or not, we’re living through a fairly dramatic historic event. What kinds of documents and ephemera being generated today will be of interest to future collectors and historians as they try to parse the impact of the Covid-19 crisis on the lives of everyday people? In a time when so many of us get our news from twitter, what physical artifacts might remain to remind us of these troubling and unprecedented weeks? Also, we remind you to please feel free to email or call the shop—Ken is there looking after things, and staying connected is important to us while the shop is closed to the public.

Brattlecast #69 - Stop the Presses!

It’s a macabre but fascinating area of American history: presidential assassinations. In this episode we’ll focus on a recently acquired collection of old newspapers covering these tragic dramas, from the gunshots and presidential demise, to the arrest and execution of the assassin, to the funeral procession, public mourning, and political aftermath. Especially interesting is the way that contemporary newspaper coverage occasionally differs from our received historical accounts of these events, and the way that violent national traumas can crystallize over time into a sort of half-true American mythology. 

Brattlecast #68 - Reading it for the Articles

It almost sounds like a joke: a braille Playboy. Although the magazine is arguably most famous for its photography, it also publishes serious literature, journalism, and interviews. In the 1970’s, when the Library of Congress began translating magazines into braille, Playboy quickly became one of its most popular offerings. The braille edition contained no descriptions of Playboy’s photos, but it still featured enough explicit romantic advice and off-color humor to earn the ire and censorship efforts of a handful of conservative congressmen, leading to a civil rights lawsuit on behalf of its vision impaired readers. All this fascinating history is here in the studio with us today, at a time when, poetically, the internet and new technologies are in the process of rendering both adult magazines and braille itself obsolete.

Brattlecast #67 - Tolkien Care of Business

J.R.R. Tolkien is the author of The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and, less famously but most importantly for our purposes, a charming letter to his publisher in which he attempts to answer questions from the public about himself and his work. On this episode, Ken reads from that letter, and talks about the chain of fascinating friendships that helped it find its way into his shop. Plus he’ll discuss the effect that the popular Peter Jackson films had on the collectability and value of Tolkien’s first editions.

Brattlecast #66 - Surprises Beyond Books

On this episode Ken talks about the broad range of surprises that he’s experienced while book buying, apart from the books themselves. In his line of work, one day you’re drinking from Thomas Jefferson’s coffee service, and the next day you’re fumigating your work truck of fleas. The house that you’re visiting could contain a handful of Turner watercolors, or a roomful of live ammunition. It’s all part of the fun - as long as you don’t get blown up!