Although we spend a lot of time hunting for treasure in other people’s attics, the Brattle has its own nooks and crannies where we let interesting items pile up for years—ok, sometimes decades. When cleaning out a cubby in the office, Ken unearthed one of these inadvertently hoarded finds: an 1870s Harper’s Magazine from the Alcatraz library. We’ll use it as a jumping off point into a discussion of Alcatraz’s history, its place in popular culture, and prison libraries in general on this escapist new #brattlecast.
Brattlecast #128 - Walt Whitman Treasures
In this episode we’re talking about the great American poet Walt Whitman. A few exciting Whitman items have come into the shop recently, and we have them here in the studio with us today. There’s a signed photograph, a first edition copy of Leaves of Grass, and a slightly later edition that was owned by the artist and illustrator Elihu Vedder and comes with handwritten notes between Vedder and Whitman. We’ll also discuss the poignant—and very rare—Civil War letters written by Whitman on behalf of wounded Union soldiers, one of which Ken was lucky enough to appraise on an episode of Antiques Roadshow.