Literature from Raptis Rare Books

London: 4th Estate, 2023. First edition the 30th anniversary of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author's first book. Signed by Jeffrey Eugenides on the front free endpaper. In fine condition.

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997. First edition of Murakami's heroically imaginative novel, which is at once a detective story, an account of a disintegrating marriage, and an excavation of the buried secrets of World War II. Octavo, original boards. Presentation copy, inscribed by Haruki Murakami in English and in Japanese and additionally signed three times by the jacket… Read more about this item

New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946. The original August 31, 1946 issue of The New Yorker of Hersey's classic work and is the work's first appearance. The entire issue of the magazine is dedicated to Hersey's piece, and this example is a presentation copy, inscribed on the final page to poet and publisher Kirby Congdon, "For Kirby Congdon -… Read more about this item

London: Geoffrey Bles, 1956. First edition of Lewis' final novel retelling of Cupid and Psyche, based on its telling in a chapter of The Golden Ass of Apuleius. Octavo, original cloth. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket art by Biggs. An exceptional example. The first part of the book is written from the perspective of Psyche's older… Read more about this item

New York: Wynwood Press, 1989. First edition of Grisham's first book. Octavo, original half cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page in the year of publication, "To Barbara Best Regards John Grisham 9-10-89." Fine in a fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Susanne DeMarco. An exceptional example. A Time To Kill was rejected by numerous… Read more about this item

London: William Heinemann, 1909. In these essays on travels in Italy written from 1872 to 1909, Henry James explores art and religion, political shifts and cultural revolutions, and the nature of travel itself. James's enthusiastic appreciation of the unparalleled aesthetic allure of Venice, the vitality of Rome, and the noisy, sensuous appeal of Naples is everywhere marked by pervasive… Read more about this item

London: Chapman and Hall, 1840. First edition of this classic collection of short stories. Large octavo, bound in full morocco by Bayntun-Riviere, gilt titles and tooling to the spine, raised bands, gilt medallion portrait of Dickens on the front panel, gilt signature on the back panel, inner dentelles, all edges gilt, marbled endpapers, illustrated by George Cattermole and Hablot… Read more about this item

London: Sampson, Low, Marston, Low, & Searle, 1875. First edition in English in book form of the first volume of Verne's Mysterious Island trilogy, preceding the Scribner Armstrong's first American edition. Octavo, original publisher's cloth decorated in gilt, all edges gilt, illustrated, tissue-guarded frontispiece. Translated from the French by W.H.G. Kingston. In fine condition. Housed in a custom half… Read more about this item

Ashland: Origin Press, 1959. First edition of the author's first book. Octavo, original wrappers as issued. Limited to 500 copies. Boldly signed by Gary Snyder on the title page. In near fine condition. Rare and desirable in this condition.

Leipzig: Kurt Wolff, 1916. True first edition of one of Franz Kafka's most important works. Octavo, original wrappers. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket, rebacked. An exceptional example. The Metamorphosis tells the story of salesman Gregor Samsa who wakes one morning to find himself inexplicably transformed into a huge insect. "While critics have interpreted this chilling story… Read more about this item

Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1931. First American edition of the sequel to Remarque's masterpiece All Quiet on the Western Front. Octavo, original cloth. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper. Near fine in a near fine dust jacket. Jacket design by Paul Wenck. We have never seen another signed example of this title. Set… Read more about this item

Paris: Delpire, 1957. First edition of the photographer's masterpiece with 83 black-and-white full-page photogravures. Oblong quarto, original boards illustrated by Saul Steinberg. In fine condition. Housed in a custom half morocco clamshell and chemise box. ack Kerouac wrote in his preface of The Americans, "Robert Frank he sucked a sad poem out of America onto film, taking rank among… Read more about this item

Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1914.

London: Cas. Sheard & Co, 1895. Rare sheet music printing of Rudyard Kipling's Ford O'Kabul River, a song from Barrack-Room Ballads. Folio, bound in one quarter morocco with gilt titles and tooling to the spine. In good condition. Bound with several other pieces including Ciro Pinsuti's Bedouin Love Song. English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist Rudyard Kipling's major… Read more about this item

New York: C.H. Webb, 1867. First edition, first printing of the author's rare first book. Octavo, original cloth, first issue lacking the leaf of ads facing the title page but with unbroken type on pages 21, 66 and 198. In very good condition with light wear to the extremities. A sharp example. Perhaps no short sketch of Twain's so… Read more about this item

At the Sign of the George, 1924. First Separate edition of Kipling's "After", the first draft of the poem that would later become The Recessional, being a facsimile of a hand-written note retrieved from Kipling's wastebasket which was later donated to the Harvard College Library. One page, folded. In fine condition. Scarce. English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist… Read more about this item

New York: Horace Liveright, 1930.

London: S. W. Partridge & Co., 1898. Prolific English novelist and war correspondent George Alfred Henty is best known for his historical adventure stories that were very popular and commercially successful in the late 19th century. Henty wrote 122 works of historical fiction throughout his career, including The Dragon & The Raven (1886), For The Temple (1888), Under Drake's… Read more about this item

New York: Harper & Row, 1982. First edition of the first novel Bellow published after winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1976. Octavo, original green cloth. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the title page, "For David Kent Saul Bellow." The recipient David Kent was Saul Bellow's Canadian publisher. Fine in a near fine dust jacket. An… Read more about this item

New York: The Viking Press, 1962. First edition of Steinbeck's Nobel Lecture. Octavo, original wrappres. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the title page, "For the Waldmanns with pleasure John Steinbeck." Presented with original mailing envelope. In near fine condition. John Steinbeck presented his Nobel Lecture on December 10, 1962 and was awarded the Prize "for his realistic… Read more about this item