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 by Henry Miller and Oragenitalism by Gershon Legman, 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), 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.
In early 1940, the shop was raided by police and Brussel was sentenced to three years in jail on obscenity charges.