Rare book highlights
Search Blog Posts
It is one of the strangest stories in the history of modern literature. A novel rejected by every commercial publisher who saw it. A novel prosecuted for obscenity in the United States before it had even been issued as a book. A novel barred from entry into the United Kingdom by His Majesty’s Customs for…
It is one of the great near-misses in modern publishing history. In 1953 a forty-one-year-old schoolmaster named William Golding finished a short, strange novel about a group of English boys stranded on a tropical island after a plane crash, and sent the manuscript out to find a publisher. More than twenty London houses read it.…
Some books exist in multiple registers simultaneously. There is The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam as a text — the collection of quatrains composed in eleventh-century Persia by the mathematician and astronomer Omar Khayyám, rendered into English verse by Edward FitzGerald in 1859, and subsequently translated, illustrated, printed, and bound in more editions than any comparable…
The Nobel Prize in Literature is the most consequential recognition in the literary world. Awarded annually by the Swedish Academy since 1901, it has conferred its authority on writers whose work has, in the Academy’s enduring phrase, been of the greatest benefit to mankind — a formulation capacious enough to encompass poets, novelists, essayists, and…
In April 2026, the CBS affiliate WBZ-TV turned its cameras on a subject that might seem, at first glance, an unlikely candidate for a lifestyle feature: a modest workshop in Charlestown, Massachusetts, where books are still sewn, rounded, backed, and tooled entirely by hand. The segment, produced for the station’s New England Living series and reported by…
Raptis Rare Books was recently featured in the May 10, 2026 issue of Florida Weekly: Celebrating 250 Years of America – Florida Weekly History comes to life this season on Worth Avenue, where Raptis Rare Books will mark the 250th anniversary of the United States with a remarkable exhibition of founding-era treasures. Set within the gallery’s…
Jodie Wagner Palm Beach Daily News May 12, 2026, 3:36 p.m. ET Musician Mark Rivera will hold a book signing for his memoir, “Sideman: In Pursuit of the Next Gig” on May 14 in Palm Beach. The event will take place at Raptis Rare Books, followed by a free live performance at Churchill Cigar Company.…
There is a moment every collector remembers. It might happen in a dusty antiquarian shop, at an auction preview, or while turning the pages of a catalogue. You pick up a book — really pick it up, feel the weight of the binding, study the title page — and something shifts. You are no longer…
When Little, Brown published Infinite Jest on February 1, 1996, it arrived already mythologized — a 1,079-page novel with nearly 400 endnotes, written by a thirty-three-year-old from central Illinois who had spent four years on a book his editors privately feared was either genius or magnificent self-indulgence. Three decades later, that question has been settled. Infinite…
Published in 1689, John Locke’s Two Treatises of Government challenged the idea of divine monarchy and introduced a revolutionary concept: that governments derive their authority from the consent of the governed. Before this work, kings ruled by divine right, with power believed to come from God. Locke rejected that foundation entirely. He argued that individuals…
In 1776, two revolutions entered the world through the printed page. One declared political independence in North America through the publication of the Declaration of Independence. The other introduced a radically new framework for understanding economic life: An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith. While the political…
In 1831, Victor Hugo changed the course of literature—and architecture—with a single novel: Notre-Dame de Paris, better known to English readers as The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. That year, the world first encountered two of literature’s most unforgettable figures: Quasimodo, the cathedral’s tormented bell-ringer, and Esméralda, the captivating dancer whose fate became tragically intertwined with his.…
In an era defined by data—by texts sent in milliseconds, videos streamed across continents, and algorithms shaping daily life—it is easy to forget that the digital age rests on a theoretical foundation laid in the mid-twentieth century. Few works have shaped modern computing and telecommunications as profoundly as The Mathematical Theory of Communication. Originally published…
In February of 1798, as the young American republic stood in a period of mounting political anxiety, Elkanah Watson sent a small book to Mount Vernon. Inside, on the front pastedown, he had written simply: “From the Author to General Washington.” On the facing leaf, he added a longer, more personal message: “New York, Feb.…
In the study of rare books, age alone is seldom the decisive measure of significance. Far more consequential is provenance — the documented history of ownership that situates a volume within lived experience. A book becomes meaningful not simply because it has survived, but because it has been held, read, annotated, exchanged, and preserved within…
In 1937, a quiet revolution in storytelling began. George Allen & Unwin published a small book by an Oxford professor—The Hobbit, or There and Back Again—in a modest print run of only 1,500 copies. Every copy sold out within three months. Few could have predicted that this unassuming children’s story would redefine an entire literary…
In the final years of the 19th century, Nikola Tesla was reshaping the modern world. His revolutionary experiments with alternating-current power, high-potential lighting, and polyphase systems laid the foundation for the electrical age—transforming electricity from a laboratory curiosity into the backbone of modern infrastructure. Much of that groundbreaking work is preserved in a remarkable 1894…
Raptis Rare Books was featured in a January 6th article in the Palm Beach Daily News. Read the full article on the Palm Beach Daily News website here. Raptis Rare Books hosts 100th anniversary celebration of The Great Gatsby Meghan McCarthy Jan. 6, 2026 Adrienne Raptis, from left, and Melissa Smiles pose for a…
Few writers shaped American literature as profoundly as Ernest Hemingway. A Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner, Hemingway was known for his stark, economical prose, his deeply human characters, and his focus on themes such as courage, loss, and masculinity. He developed what he called the “iceberg theory” of writing—the idea that the most important elements…
Lauded by William Faulkner as “the father of American literature,” American writer, humorist, and publisher Mark Twain is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in American literary history. Active during the latter half of the nineteenth century, Twain fundamentally redefined the American narrative, diverging from European literary models to cultivate a distinctly…
Few poets have etched themselves into the American consciousness as deeply as Robert Frost. With his deceptively simple verses and vivid portraits of rural life, Frost captured the complex emotions and quiet struggles of everyday people. Born in 1874 and writing well into the mid-20th century, he became not just a chronicler of the human…
The following article appeared in The Palm Beach Daily News on May 2, 2025: Jodie WagnerPalm Beach Daily News A rare first edition of the literary classic “The Great Gatsby” is up for sale in Palm Beach, with an asking price just shy of $1 million. Raptis Rare Books, at 329 Worth Ave., has acquired…
Legendary hockey player Wayne Gretzky recently visited Raptis Rare Books and Churchill Cigar Company to sit down with Cigar Aficionado’s executive editor David Savona for an exclusive interview. The word “great” is used often in sports, but no man has better embodied the adjective than Wayne Gretzky, who has been known as “The…
Eric Carle was one of the most beloved figures in children’s literature, known for his vibrant, collage-style illustrations and simple yet profound storytelling. His books have introduced generations of children to the joys of reading while sparking curiosity about nature, colors, and the world around them. Through a combination of art and storytelling, Carle’s works…
