San Fernando Valley bookstore boasts impressive collection of 250,000 old and rare books

By Jenna Jarrah

Eric Chaim Kline has been dealing in old and rare books since 1980, and his current shop in the San Fernando Valley has an impressive inventory of over 250,000 books. An antiquarian bookseller, Kline specializes in “all things Jewish,” photography, decorative arts, and architecture.

While a graduate student of Brandeis University working for a doctorate in Jewish history and philosophy, Kline became “really passionate about books, education, and the ability to transmit, preserve, and exchange information through the written word.”

A proprietor of several bookshops in Santa Monica from 1985 to 1994, Kline’s current book space spans 15,000 square feet in the San Fernando Valley, with six employees who help him manage his 250,000 book inventory.

Kline curates works from 1850 to 1960–Kline curates works from 1850 to 1960–the end of the 19th century to the end of modernism.

But for his collection of Jewish material, Kline has works dating back to the 1600s in multiple foreign languages, including German, Hebrew, Yiddish, and Polish.

“I just sold a book to an institution where the Jewish community in Germany wrote a poem for a duke, who was coming to visit the synagogue in 1829,” he said. “The poem is written in flowery German, and on the other page, it’s in Hebrew, and it’s in a presentation, binding and silk, that was ostensibly given to this official at the time.”

As an expert in his chosen specialities, Kline also works to support collection development at university libraries and museums throughout the country. Yale, Stanford, John Hopkins, Brandeis University, and the National Holocaust Museum in DC are just some of his institutional clients.

In addition to working with academic institutions, Kline does appraisal, auction, consulting, and rental services. Appraisals, Kline noted, are a particularly lucrative business.

“I do appraisals for all forms of printed works in all languages. I also do appraisals for graphic arts and photography, real photographs, and archives,” he said.

Kline cites knowledge, client trust, and taste for his longstanding success in the industry.

But in the age of digitization and AI, antiquarian booksellers like Kline have had to adapt accordingly.

“People will always be interested in the physical object of a book or document, which can often tell you more about the contents than the reproduction of the same piece online,” he said. “And as time goes on, the actual object will become rarer and appreciate in value.”

Kline, who is in his mid-70s and says he’s “not getting any younger,” is planning on reducing his book inventory, but will continue to work as a bookseller in the Valley.