Raptis Rare Books is an Antiquarian Book firm that specializes in Fine First Editions, Signed and Inscribed books, and Landmark books in all fields. We have distinguished ourselves by having a reputation for handling unique and important books that are in exceptional condition.
BROWSE OUR MOST RECENT CATALOG
Browse an exceptional selection of new acquisitions with the arrival of our latest catalog of fine rare books and historic documents: Presenting 80 Great Works. Highlights of the catalog include a rare first edition of Herodotus’ Historaie in Greek, an exceptionally rare printing of Thomas Paine’s The American Crisis, a first edition set of Charles Lucian Bonaparte’s American Ornithology, a rare first limited large paper edition of Shackleton’s The Heart of the Antarctic, a scarce first edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tales, a first edition of Hemingway’s masterpiece The Sun Also Rises in the scarce original dust jacket, and a first edition set of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.
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Our passion, expertise, and attentive customer service will guide you on a remarkable journey with a rich history and tradition. Whether your aim is to create a beautiful personal library, start a small collection of first editions, or give a gift to a loved one, we can assist you in discovering the world of book collecting. Create your legacy and preserve culture by holding these unique items in your personal library.
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The world of rare and antiquarian books awaits you. Browse by our extensive collection by subject, view featured books, recent arrivals and more. Call us at (561) 508-3479 to speak with us about any of the books you see on this website, request a printed catalog, or if you have questions regarding adding books to your wishlist or shopping cart. We’re here to assist you.
FEATURED ITEMS
Signed limited edition of the author’s classic work. Number 75 of 95 copies, signed by Kahlil Gibran. Illustrated with seven View product.
The complete writings of George Washington. Large octavo, 12 volumes, uniformly bound in full contemporary calf, gilt titles and tooling View product.
First edition, second printing of the author’s masterpiece. Octavo, original green cloth, gilt titles to the spine. Inscribed by the View product.
First edition in English of the author’s masterpiece, published just one year after the original French edition and before the View product.
Later printing of the Rands’s breakthrough work. Octavo, original cloth. Boldly signed and dated by the author on the front View product.
First American edition, which preceded the British edition of Wyndham’s classic work. Octavo, original cloth. Boldly signed by John Wyndham View product.
First edition in English of the author’s masterpiece, published just one year after the original French edition and before the View product.
Fourth printing of the author’s Pulitzer-Prize winning novel. Octavo, original half cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the View product.
Second edition of von Neumann and Morgenstern’s landmark work. Octavo, original cloth. Signed by John Von Neumann. Near fine in View product.
First limited edition of this epic historical drama made into the 1962 film starring Marlon Brando, Trevor Howard and Richard Harris. View product.
First edition of this classic work, which remains the basis of much liberal political thought. Octavo, original cloth. In very good View product.
First edition of one of the earliest biographies of profoundly influential American abolitionist, John Brown; published in the first year View product.
Rare autograph note signed by the founder of modern nursing, Florence Nightingale. The note reads, “A verbal answer, please, by View product.
First edition of what many consider one of the most important novels on Hollywood and the film industry. Octavo, original View product.
Rare Mohandas K. Gandhi autograph, signed at the height of the struggle for Indian Independence. Signed by Gandhi, “M.K. Gandhi 28-12-38 View product.
Royal Christmas card bearing a full-color family photograph of Prince Charles, Princess Diana, and the infant Prince William. Inscribed by View product.
First edition of Faulkner’s first book in the rare first state dust jacket with An American Tragedy as the first of five View product.
Rare first edition of Nobbes’ authoritative work on the history and methods of trolling. First issue with the engraved hook View product.
First edition, first issue with the publisher’s logo on the half title page of Kesey’s second novel. Octavo, original cloth. View product.
Philosophical Essays Concerning Human Understanding By the Author of the Essays Moral and Political.
First edition of this landmark of Enlightenment thought. 12mo, bound in full contemporary calf, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, View product.
Rare autograph note signed by Charles Darwin to fellow naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace. The note reads, “Oct. 27 Down, Beckenham View product.
First edition of this music collection of the songs of Bob Dylan. Quarto, original illustrated wrappers as issued, frontispiece portrait View product.
One volume containing four parts: Colombo and the Kelani Valley; Kandy and Peradeniya; Nuwara Eliya and Adam’s Peak and The View product.
First edition, first issue binding with “By Rail Through Asia”. Octavo, original cloth, cartographic endpapers. Signed by Paul Theroux on View product.
First edition of Puzo’s definitive novel of the Mafia underworld. Octavo, original half black cloth. Association copy, warmly inscribed by View product.
Exceptionally rare finely bound autograph album signed by the 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln as well as View product.
Autograph boldly signed “U.S. Grant, Lt. Gen.” on a card. Double matted and framed with a photograph of Grant. The View product.
First edition of the first collected edition of Newton‘s writings, which has been hailed as “a fine piece of bookmaking” (Babson). View product.
First edition in parts of “the most perfect of all the Dickens novels” (Virginia Woolf). Original serial issue. Twenty parts View product.
First edition of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “robust adventure story,” illustrated with eight tipped-in plates, including frontispiece photographic portrait of “the members of View product.
Finley bound first edition set of Gleig’s history the British Empire in India from the library of Charles Dickens. Octavos, View product.
First edition in English of one of the cornerstones of Western philosophy and politics. Quarto, period style full calf, red View product.
Rare first edition of this early book of fortune telling and divination through card reading. Octavo, bound in original cloth, View product.
First edition, first issue with “Published May 1936” on the copyright page of the author’s classic novel. Octavo, original gray View product.
First editions of the first novel of the author’s acclaimed Trilogy of Desire. Octavo, original cloth. Signed by the author on View product.
First edition of Watson’s ground breaking work regarding the discovery of DNA for which the author, Francis Crick and Maurice View product.
First American edition of this children’s classic. Octavo, original cloth, illustrated with 27 line cuts (13 full-page) and chapter tailpieces View product.
First edition of the author’s first book, one of the great novels of World War II. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation View product.
Rare first edition of this important work on golf architecture by one of the world’s most influential golf architects, Dr. View product.
First edition of the lavishly illustrated companion volume to Disney’s animated musical masterpiece. Quarto, original cloth, pictorial endpapers, illustrated with 16 mounted color plates. View product.
Military commission boldly signed by Abraham Lincoln as President August 7, 1861, and countersigned by Simon Cameron as Secretary of View product.
First edition, limited issue of this wizarding classic. Signed by J.K. Rowling on the half-title page, with the authentication hologram. View product.
First edition of this work by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist regarding quantum electrodynamics. Octavo, original cloth. Signed by Richard Feynman View product.
First American edition of Camus’ first novel and masterpiece. Octavo, original beige cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on View product.
First American edition of this landmark novel of the 20th century. Octavo, original beige cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author in View product.
First American edition of Dostoevsky’s masterpiece, described by Freud as “the most magnificent novel ever written.” Octavo, original cloth, top edge View product.
The manuscript edition of the writings of Henry David Thoreau. With the original manuscript sheet by Thoreau from his journal View product.
Rare first edition, Special Limited Large Paper Issue of Shackleton’s account of the British Antarctic Expedition of 1907-1909, number 97 of only View product.
Signed limited first edition, number 122 of 1000 large-paper copies signed by Roosevelt beneath the frontispiece portrait and signed by View product.
First edition of Crichton’s gripping, bestselling scientific thriller. Octavo, original half cloth. Signed by Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg on View product.
Rare autograph note signed by each of the primary members of the Shackleton–Rowett Expedition, including: Ernest Henry Shackleton, Frank Wild, View product.
First edition of Adam Smith’s magnum opus and cornerstone of economic thought. Quarto, 2 volumes. Bound in full brown calf, View product.
First edition of this collection of addresses delivered by General Douglas MacArthur to the Corps Cadets of West Point Military View product.
Rare Richard Nixon Presidential Commission appointing Baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio as a “Member of the Conference on Physical View product.
Rare original postcard handwritten and signed by influential British novelist Virginia Woolf to her brother-in-law Clive Bell. The postcard reads, View product.
Rare letter excerpt boldly signed by Ernest Hemingway. Published by the Walden Book Shop in 1930, the introduction begins "The View product.
First edition of the author’s classic work. Octavo, original cloth, gilt titles to the spine. In very good condition with View product.
Rare early printing of Thomas Paine’s landmark work. Octavo, bound in calf over marble boards, gilt titles and tooling to View product.
First edition, first issue of the first printing, with the misprint (“stoppped”) on page 181 line 26, in the first View product.
Rare second collected edition in English of The Prince and the Discourses on Livy, translated by Edward Dacres, Machiavelli’s first View product.
First edition of the first novel in Ian Fleming’s James Bond series. Octavo, original black cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by View product.
Magnificent first trade edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, rendered into English Verse by Edward Fitzgerald and with illustrations View product.
First edition of Nabokov’s masterpiece, published in Paris by the Olympia Press in 1955. First issue with the price of View product.
First edition of First Lady Helen Herron Taft’s autobiography, the first autobiography published by a First Lady of the United View product.
First edition of “one of the best musicals of the twentieth century” (The New York Times). Octavo, original boards, illustrated, View product.
First edition of Muir’s collection of short works on the beauty and splendor of America’s National Parks. Octavo, original cloth, View product.
First edition, one of 750 numbered copies on handmade paper from a total edition of 1000 copies, this is number View product.
First edition of the first novel in Ian Fleming’s James Bond series. Octavo, original black cloth. Near fine in a View product.
First edition of one of the most significant novels of the twentieth century. Octavo, original blue cloth. Boldly signed by View product.
The deluxe illustrated Ibarra edition of Cervantes’ masterpiece. Quartos, 4 volumes. Bound in full contemporary Spanish blind-stamped tree calf, gilt View product.
First edition of Nella Larsen’s first book. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free View product.
Second edition of the first series of the writings of Gandhi. Octavo, original cloth with gilt titles to the spine View product.
Exceptionally rare miniature book of hours illuminated with 6 full-page miniatures and 30 other pages with full illuminated borders. 12mo, bound View product.
Rare original photograph of baseball legend Babe Ruth signing baseballs for four young ballplayers. Boldly signed by Ruth in the View product.
First British edition of Churchill’s singular attempt at full-length fiction, one of only 1,500 copies. Octavo, original cloth with gilt titles View product.
First edition, first state of Fitzgerald’s second novel. Octavo, original green cloth. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with View product.
Autograph note signed by American Founding Father Benjamin Franklin, “I your most obedient & most humble servant B Franklin.” Affixed View product.
Ernest Shackleton’s copy of Tolstoy’s masterpiece with his ownership signature to the pastedown of each volume. Octavo, 2 volumes, original View product.
First edition of the final novel published during Austen’s lifetime, with the rare half-titles present. Small octavo, 3 volumes, bound View product.
First editions of the author’s authoritative text on The Civil War. Octavo, 3 volumes, bound in three quarters morocco over View product.
First edition of one of the most influential novels of the twentieth century. Large octavo, original green cloth, frontispiece stamped View product.
Signed limited first edition of this volume of poetry and true first appearance of The Winding Stair collection, Yeats’ follow View product.
First edition of one of Woolf’s best-known novels, one of only 2000 copies. Octavo, original orange cloth. Fine in a View product.
First editions of both volumes of this classic cook book. Quarto, 2 volumes, original illustrated boards. Volume 1 is signed View product.
First edition, second printing of Lennon’s first book. Octavo, original laminated pictorial boards. Introduction by Paul McCartney. Presentation copy, signed View product.
Featured Subjects
Whether you are interested in building a traditional library of fine bindings, have an interest in science fiction, architecture, sports, cooking, economics, history, or any other genre, we have experience in finding the perfect books for the perfect shelf. We know that each person is unique, and our aim is to match your library with your home and it’s reflection of the owner’s personality. We have helped build some of the finest private and public libraries in the country and are here to assist you in your pursuit and to be your guide in bringing the library of your imagination to reality.
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Blog Posts
Susan Christiansen2019-03-22T16:49:44-05:00
The 50th Anniversary of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five.
Susan Christiansen2019-02-02T15:41:37-05:00
Celebrating Black History Month and African American Literature.
Adrienne Raptis2019-02-14T13:12:39-05:00
Raptis Rare Books Presents: Kabbalah on Worth with Rabbi Zalman Levitin.
Adrienne Raptis2019-01-15T13:28:17-05:00
