The Books & Books flagship store in Coral Gables, Fla., encourages lingering.

It’s not just the historic setting (the building dates to 1927), the walls of reading material or the sun-drenched courtyard and cafe. There’s also a warmth and satisfaction in all that it represents. That’s the vision Mitchell Kaplan had in 1982 when he first opened the doors to what was a much smaller operation back then.

Thirty-seven years, an international book fair and eight additional locations later, Kaplan is celebrated as the man who turned Miami into a book town, and one of the foremost literary centers in the world, starting at a time when nobody took it seriously.

“I came of age on South Beach in the late ’60s, when Miami was seen as a fairly irrelevant place,” Kaplan said. Authors were his heroes: “To me, being a writer was always the highest calling one could have.”