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English writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley wrote nearly fifty books throughout the course of his lifetime, including his most famous novel, Brave New World, which painted a nightmarish vision of a dystopian future, and The Perennial Philosophy, the apex of his exploration of philosophical mysticism. After graduating from Balliol College, Oxford with an undergraduate degree…
Listed by Guinness World Records as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, the “Queen of Crime” Agatha Christie published sixty-six detective novels and fourteen short story collections throughout the course of her lifetime which sold more than two billion copies. A master of suspense, plotting, and characterization, in her prime, Christie was rarely out…
Often referred to as “the father of American literature”, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, or Mark Twain as the world now knows him, published a large body of work including several works of both fiction and non-fiction in addition to a vast number of short stories and essays. Raised in the port town of Hannibal,…
The following article was posted on The Palm Beach Daily News website: Posted Jul 7, 2020 at 5:30 PM Raptis Rare Books in Palm Beach marks 60th anniversary of the publication of To Kill a Mockingbird with an array of Harper Lee collectibles. Raptis Rare Books is marking the 60th anniversary of the publication of Harper Lee’s To…
To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the publication of one of the most important American novels of the 20th century, To Kill a Mockingbird, Raptis Rare Books is currently holding an exhibition of rare signed first editions, letters and original drawings by Harper Lee. To Kill a Mockingbird was first published by J.B. Lippincott Company…
Born in Duluth, Minnesota on May 24, 1941, Bob Dylan‘s interest in music and performance began in his high school years and, after moving to Minneapolis to attend the University of Minnesota in 1959, he emerged on the American folk music scene. He soon dropped out of college and moved to New York…
Eighty years ago on May 10th 1940, one of the most influential figures of the 20th century, Winston S. Churchill, was appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, following the resignation of Neville Chamberlain and on the very day that Germany invaded Belgium, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands. In light of the current global pandemic…
William Faulkner has become one of the most celebrated writers in American literature. Although he published his first book, Soldier’s Pay, in 1926 and his second book Mosquitoes in 1927, he was not largely known as a writer until over twenty years later. In 1927, Faulkner wrote his first novel to be set in his…
As we approach the year 2020, its hard to believe that iconic era of the 1920s is now a century ago. We look back on this decade as an age of striking social and political change. Due to changes in technology and the economy, Americans were connected to one another and the rest of the…
Prolific American author Toni Morrison published 11 novels, 9 works of non-fiction, 5 children’s novels and received over 30 awards throughout the course of her career including the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1988, the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded by Barack Obama, in 2012. Born on February…
March 2019 marks the 50th Anniversary of the publication of Vonnegut’s most powerful novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade, A Duty-Dance With Death. Published 50 years ago this month, on March 31st 1969, Vonnegut’s science fiction-infused anti-war novel Slaughterhouse-Five became his first bestseller and made the 47-year old writer a celebrity. The story centres on…
Sunday, March 10th marks the 50th anniversary of Puzo’s definitive masterwork. A searing narrative of the Mafia underworld, Mario Puzo’s epic novel The Godfather made its debut on March 10th, 1969. Appearing at a time when America’s interest in organized crime was growing, the book was applauded for its authenticity and swiftly became publisher G.P.…
Raptis Rare Books is pleased to welcome experienced journalist and acclaimed author Andrea di Robilant as he discusses his new book: Autumn in Venice: Ernest Hemingway and His Last Muse. In this illuminating work, Andrea recounts the remarkable story of Ernest Hemingway’s love affair with both the city of Venice and the muse he found…
Raptis Rare Books is pleased to present Kabbalah on Worth: a four-part lecture series exploring the history and teachings of the sacred text. Presented in collaboration with the Gary & Terri Schottenstein Palm Beach Torah Institute Presented by the Chabad House and 55 Croisette.
Attributed to the singular ancient Greek poet Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey are considered to be, not only, the most important works of ancient Greek literature but the oldest extant works of Western literature. The epic poems were likely composed near the end of the 8th century B.C.E. in the Greek coastal region of Anatolia…
This week we are celebrating the life and work of prolific Nobel Prize-winning author, V. S. Naipaul who recently passed away at the age of 85 in London, England. The author of over thirty works of both fiction and non-fiction, Naipaul was born in Trinidad to a family with Indian roots. Many of Naipaul’s early…
Born in Sacramento, California on December 5th 1934, American journalist, novelist, and screenwriter Joan Didion created some of the most poignant portraits of American culture throughout the 1960s and 70s. Didion graduated from the University of California, Berkeley in 1956 and immediately began her career as a copywriter for Vogue, her work later appearing in…
This week we are celebrating the life and work of American journalist and author Thomas Kennedy Wolfe Jr. who recently passed away on May 14th, 2018 at the age of 88. Tom Wolfe was widely associated with the intensely immersive New Journalism style of news writing that emerged in mid 1960s America; he coined the…
Born on February 27th 1902 in Salinas, California, American author John Steinbeck published sixteen novels throughout his lifetime and was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1962. The rich cultural diversity and migratory history of the Salinas Valley distinctly influenced his work as did his experiences struggling to make ends meet during the Great…
Born on April 15th 1843, American author Henry James was regarded as a key transitional figure between literary realism and modernism, and is considered by many to be among the greatest novelists of the English language. James is one of the major figures of trans-Atlantic literature. His works frequently juxtapose characters from the Old World, embodying a feudal civilization that is “beautiful, often…
Initially proposed by a group of African American educators at Kent State University in February of 1969, Black History Month was officially recognized by President Gerald Ford as a month of national observance in 1970 during the United States Bicentennial where he urged American citizens to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of…
Romantic French author, Victor Hugo is widely known for his novels, Les Miserables and The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. He was born in France in 1802 and traveled around Europe at a young age because of his father’s job as a major in Napoleon’s army. His mother, a strong royalist, opposed much of his father’s political opinions…
[one_full last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_position=”all” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][fusion_text]Joseph Conrad is considered one of the most influential English writers of the 19th century, inspiring great American authors such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, and William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and Virginia Woolf with his…
As most people know, the novel To Kill a Mockingbird is one of the best-loved classics of all time. It has been translated into more than forty languages and has sold more than forty million copies worldwide. In 1962 it was also made into the film starring Gregory Peck, which won three Academy Awards. Therefore,…
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