Perhaps amassing 2000 copies of Walden isn’t exactly what Thoreau meant when he exhorted us to ‘Simplify, simplify,’ however, some collectors do simplify their libraries by collecting different editions of a single book. Books like the Bible, The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, and the works of Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Dante Alighieri have been published so often, with such a variety of bindings, languages, and illustrations, that a collection of even one of these books would be impossible to ever complete. We’ll take a look at a few of these monomaniacal collections on this week’s brattlecast.
Brattlecast #80 - Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend
An antique publicity photograph of ‘Young Ladies’ Baseball Club No. 1’ serves as a jumping off point for our look at the rugged, revolutionary women athletes of the late 1800’s. Decades before A League of Their Own, professional women’s baseball teams, in controversial uniforms and against the prevailing medical advice of the times, played for crowds of thousands. In this episode we celebrate these often overlooked sporting pioneers, and attempt to answer the age old question: is there crying in baseball?
Brattlecats #79 - Make Way for Ducklings
Today we take a look at a first edition copy of Make Way for Ducklings. The Boston-set, Caldecott Medal-winning children’s classic, written and illustrated by Robert McClosky, follows a family of ducks on their journey through the city in search of a safe and comfortable home. Since its first publication in 1941, Make Way for Ducklings has delighted generations of young readers, been commemorated by statues and museum exhibitions, and continues to fly off the shelves at the Brattle today.
Brattlecast #78 - The Brattle and the City
A radio interview with Lizabeth Cohen, author of the new book, Saving America’s Cities: Ed Logue and the Struggle to Renew Urban America in the Suburban Age, reminds Ken of the Brattle’s own struggle with urban renewal. Logue was head of the Boston Redevelopment Agency when, in the 1960’s, the city demolished most of Scollay Square, a vibrant but increasingly seedy entertainment district - and original home of the Brattle Book Shop. Most of the area was replaced with the I.M. Pei designed Government Center, a monumental plaza of modernist buildings which many consider cold and alienating. Although Ken’s father, George Gloss, together with the Boston Athenaeum, raised enough of an outcry to save a few historic buildings from the wrecking ball, the Brattle itself was displaced. It would be the first of seven moves for the plucky book shop, one of which was occasioned by a catastrophic fire, but the Brattle endured, with a great deal of personality and help from the community; eventually landing in the West Street location where it thrives today.
Brattlecast #70 - Fashion Collections
A collection of French fashion magazines from the 1920’s sends us off into an exploration of fashion magazines in general. They contain a lot of good outfit ideas, sure, and some have gorgeous illustrations, but they’re also a fascinating record of everyday life. The history of hemlines and purses can also be read as a history of women’s freedom and independence. Echos of the most outlandish haute couture design eventually percolate down through the culture into the clothing pages of the Sears & Roebuck catalog. All men wear hats everyday, until one day they don’t. Join us for a stroll down the runway and into history in this very snappy #brattlecast.
