Raptis Rare Books

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Raptis Rare Books Raptis Rare Books is an antiquarian book firm on Worth Avenue in Palm Beach, Florida.
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Raptis Rare Books is an antiquarian book store located at 329 Worth Avenue 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 these shelves and discover Provenance, Matthew Raptis' nonfiction debut, a thirty-year conversation with rare boo...
10/11/2026

Browse these shelves and discover Provenance, Matthew Raptis' nonfiction debut, a thirty-year conversation with rare books made visible. Stories of ownership, inscription, and the lives that bindings hold. Chip Kidd's design. Nicholas A. Basbanes' foreword. A book about why books matter, shelved among those that do. 📖✨📚

Banned Books Week: Lo**taNo American publisher would touch it. Vladimir Nabokov finished Lo**ta in 1953, watched it turn...
10/09/2026

Banned Books Week: Lo**ta

No American publisher would touch it. Vladimir Nabokov finished Lo**ta in 1953, watched it turned down across New York, and finally saw it printed in Paris in 1955 by a press better known for erotica. Within a year it was banned in France, then in Argentina and New Zealand, while critics in London were split between calling it a masterpiece and calling it filth. When Putnam published it in America in 1958, it sold 100,000 copies in three weeks. Swipe through for the full story and a look at our copy, signed by Nabokov with one of the butterflies he liked to draw. On view at our gallery at 329 Worth Avenue, Palm Beach, and at RaptisRareBooks.com.

Can a great novel have a monstrous narrator? Tell us what you think in the comments.

The first round of fixes, made mid-printing. A second state reflects changes introduced after production began - a small...
10/09/2026

The first round of fixes, made mid-printing. A second state reflects changes introduced after production began - a small correction here, a swapped page there. Does knowing a book was quietly revised make it more interesting to you?

Every book in this library was once chained to its shelf. Not for decoration - for survival.The Chained Library at Heref...
10/08/2026

Every book in this library was once chained to its shelf. Not for decoration - for survival.

The Chained Library at Hereford Cathedral is the largest surviving chained library in the world, its 1,500 volumes still attached to their original rods and locks, just as they were in medieval times when books were too precious to risk walking out the door. The collection includes a 1,300-year-old manuscript written on vellum.

At Raptis Rare Books, we understand that impulse completely. Some books are worth going to extraordinary lengths to keep.
It's not just collecting - it's protecting what is irreplaceable.

10/08/2026

We’re all looking for happiness. For book lovers, it’s here.

10/08/2026

Congratulations for your in !

Banned Books Week: Adventures of Huckleberry FinnIt was pulled from a library shelf within a month of reaching American ...
10/07/2026

Banned Books Week: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

It was pulled from a library shelf within a month of reaching American readers, and Mark Twain could not have been more pleased. Swipe through to see why the novel was banned in 1885, how the objection to it changed over the next century, and the single line on which the whole book turns. This first edition is on view in our gallery on worth avenue and on our website thru the link in the bio.

Did you read it in school, and would you assign it today? Tell us in the comments.

Remembering Frank Herbert, born October 8, 1920-Frank Herbert was born 106 years ago this Thursday in Tacoma, Washington...
10/07/2026

Remembering Frank Herbert, born October 8, 1920
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Frank Herbert was born 106 years ago this Thursday in Tacoma, Washington. A journalist by trade, he spent six years researching and writing Dune, a novel that grew out of an unfinished magazine article on the sand dunes of the Oregon coast.

More than twenty publishers declined the manuscript before Chilton, a Philadelphia firm known for its auto repair manuals, published it in 1965. The first printing was small and sold slowly. Dune went on to win the first Nebula Award for Best Novel and share the Hugo Award, and it has never gone out of print.

For collectors, the Chilton first edition is one of the cornerstones of twentieth-century science fiction, and copies in the original dust jacket have become increasingly difficult to find in collectible condition.

Which of Herbert’s books did you read first?

Every reader remembers the spark. Share the book that lit yours.
10/05/2026

Every reader remembers the spark. Share the book that lit yours.

Banned Books Week: The Catcher in the Rye-Few American novels have been argued over for as long as this one. For Banned ...
10/05/2026

Banned Books Week: The Catcher in the Rye
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Few American novels have been argued over for as long as this one. For Banned Books Week, we are looking at how J.D. Salinger’s novel came to be written, why it unsettled so many parents and school boards, and what its history looks like seventy-five years on. Swipe through for the story, and for a look at the inscribed copy now in our gallery at 329 Worth Avenue, Palm Beach. Further details are in our bio.
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Address

329 Worth Avenue
Palm Beach, FL
33480

Opening Hours

Monday 10am - 5pm
Tuesday 10am - 5pm
Wednesday 10am - 5pm
Thursday 10am - 5pm
Friday 10am - 5pm
Saturday 10am - 5pm

Telephone

+15615083479

Website

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