Jacob R. Brussel (June 21, 1899 – October 1979) was an antiquarian bookseller and publisher in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

whose firm J.R. Brussel also dealt in erotica. For many years Jake Brussel operated a shop, under various names including Atlantis and Ortelius, on New York's famous Fourth Avenue "

Book Row Book Row was a district in New York City from the 1890s to the 1960s composed of six city blocks which, at its peak, contained over three dozen bookstores. Many – if not most – of the places were used bookstores. In its heyday, Book Row spanned ...

", initially in partnership with

Samuel Weiser Weiser Antiquarian Books is the oldest occult bookstore in the United States. It specialises in books on Aleister Crowley and his circle, magic, mysticism, eastern religions and alternative spirituality. Its earlier New York incarnation, The Weiser ...

as "Weiser's Book Shop" until Weiser moved out to open his own shop across the street. He published large numbers of erotic and sexological reprints of works in the public domain in small editions, employing a job printer in a cellar around the corner, as well as the unauthorized bootleg "Medvsa" edition of ''

Tropic of Cancer The Tropic of Cancer, which is also referred to as the Northern Tropic, is the most northerly circle of latitude on Earth at which the Sun can be directly overhead. This occurs on the June solstice, when the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward ...

'' by

Henry Miller Henry Valentine Miller (December 26, 1891 – June 7, 1980) was an American novelist. He broke with existing literary forms and developed a new type of semi-autobiographical novel that blended character study, social criticism, philosophical ref ...

and ''

Oragenitalism ''Oragenitalism'' is a book by the American folklorist Gershon Legman, published by the Julian Press in 1969. The book describes various types of oral sex. The book is intended as "instruction manual, conduct guide, and household advice book". T ...

'' by

Gershon Legman Gershon Legman (November 2, 1917 – February 23, 1999) was an American cultural critic and folkloristics, folklorist, best known for his books ''The Rationale of the Dirty Joke'' (1968) and ''The Horn Book: Studies in Erotic Folklore and Bib ...

, a young employee in the Brussel bookshop. Others who worked in the shop in this era included Sol M. Malkin, (later the founder of ''

AB Bookman's Weekly ''AB Bookman's Weekly'' was a weekly trade publication begun in 1948 by Sol. M. Malkin as a publication of the R. R. Bowker Company, publisher of ''Books in Print'' and other book trade and library periodicals. In its glory days between the early ...

''), Keene Wallis, and Mahlon Blaine. In June 1928, Malkin, then a 19-year old clerk, was arrested in a police raid on the premises led by John Sumner, in which 1,500 books were seized. At that time the store was called the Ortelius Book Shop and was located at 134 E. 8th St., across the street from

Wanamaker's John Wanamaker Department Store was one of the first department stores in the United States. Founded by John Wanamaker in Philadelphia, it was influential in the development of the retail industry including as the first store to use price tags. ...

. The shop's book scout was Jake's brother, I.R. "Ike" Brussel, a book hunter billed as "the last of the great scouts". In early 1940, the shop was raided by police and Brussel was sentenced to three years in jail on obscenity charges. After WWII, he carried on the storefront business while focusing largely on publishing under various imprints, including Brussel and Brussel, New York Medical Press, and United Book Guild.Jay A. Gertzman, ''Bookleggers and Smuthounds: The Trade in Erotica, 1920-1940'', p. 283.

References

Sources

Mikita Brottman Mikita Brottman, née Mikita Hoy, (born 1966) is a British American non-fiction author, scholar, and psychologist known for her interest in true crime. Her writing blends a number of genres, often incorporating elements of autobiography, psych ...

, ''Funny peculiar: Gershon Legman and the psychopathology of humor'', Routledge, 2004, , pp. 5–7,31 * Alexander Cockburn, Jeffrey St. Clair, ''Serpents in the garden: liaisons with culture & sex'', AK Press, 2004, , pp. 255–256 * Lawrence J. Shifreen, Roger Jackson, ''Henry Miller: a bibliography of primary sources'', Alyscamps Press, 1993, pp. 11–12 American booksellers American publishers (people) 1899 births 1979 deaths {{US-publish-bio-stub