A twenty-year publishing veteran, Rappaport got his start in the book industry as a clerk at Montreal’s gay and lesbian bookstore, Librairie L’Androgyne, and within a few years became co-owner. He went on to complete the Canadian summer publishing workshop when it was held in the mountain resort of Banff.  Rappaport landed his first New York City publishing job in the production department at Chanticleer Press, the country’s oldest book packager. Over the next fifteen years he held editorial positions with Routledge, the Free Press, and Bantam Dell. In 2010, in a nod to his book roots, Rappaport joined Canadian publisher McClelland & Stewart, before it was absorbed by Random House. 

Philip’s editorial work covers an eclectic mix of nonfiction in topics as diverse as memoir and biography, psychology, popular science, health and dieting, lifestyle, and Judaica. He has edited numerous acclaimed and bestselling writers. At the Free Press, Philip’s authors included the psychologists Martin Seligman, James Garbarino, Jeanne Safer, Monica Ramirez-Basco, Gail Hornstein, Elizabeth Young-Breuhl, and Richard Nesbitt. As a senior editor at Bantam, Philip had the privilege to work with Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mitch Horowitz, Tahir Shah, Richard Rodriguez, Ron Leshem, and Leslie Baumann, among many others. 

Raised in a neighborhood surrounded by the Northwest Branch Stream Valley Park in Silver Spring, Maryland, Rappaport attended Rutgers College in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and studied art history at McGill University in Montreal. After graduation he enrolled at the language school in the Université Paul Cézanne Aix, and continued his French studies at the Université de Montréal. In 2003, Philip was an editorial fellow at the Jerusalem International Book Fair, and now serves as the permanent North American liaison for the Fair.