Authors
Search Blog Posts
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…
Read More >
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…
Read More >
Although she only published two novels throughout her lifetime, American novelist Nella Larsen earned wide recognition among her contemporaries as one of the important voices of the Harlem Renaissance, as well as an important figure in American modernism. Larsen died on this day, March 30th, in 1964 at the age of 72 and left behind…
Read More >
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…
Read More >
This upcoming Saturday, November 30th marks the 145th anniversary of the birth of one of the most significant figures of the 20th century, Sir Winston S. Churchill. Born in Oxfordshire to a wealthy, aristocratic family, Churchill joined the British Army in 1895 at the age of twenty-one and saw action in British India, the Anglo–Sudan War, and the Second Boer…
Read More >
One of the most influential economic treatises of the twentieth century and Austrian-American economist Ludwig von Mises’ single most important work, Human Action: A Treatise on Economics, first appeared 70 years ago, in September of 1949. Human Action was first published by the Yale University Press in 1949 and later that same year in London…
Read More >
American entrepreneur, animator, and film producer Walt Disney is arguably the most important figure in the history of animation. A national cultural icon, his innovative spirit and vision revolutionized the genre of animated cartoons, making them a major part of mainstream popular entertainment. Born in Chicago’s Hermosa neighborhood, Disney began his animation career in 1919…
Read More >
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…
Read More >
American novelist and social activist James Baldwin was born today, August 2nd, in Harlem in 1924. The literary master’s deeply personal and provocative stories examined both the African American and homosexual experience when neither identity was accepted by American culture. His works would come to galvanize the nation and give a passionate voice to the…
Read More >
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…
Read More >