Our founder, Erica Abbett, with her family
Renaissance Revival
*Formerly Vocabbett
Bringing the good, the true, and the beautiful back into modern life
HOW IT STARTED
Italy
Erica Abbett moved to Italy in 2007 to study the classics as a senior in high school. She lived with a host family in Viterbo, a medieval city near Rome, for the entire academic year. It was the beginning of something truly beautiful!
Egypt
Erica Abbett spent the fall semester of 2010 studying ancient history and Middle Eastern affairs at The American University in Cairo. Seeds for her first novel, Ahead of Her Time: An SAT Vocabulary Novel, were planted amid the brewing 'Arab Spring' revolution.
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Israel
Erica spent the spring semester of 2011 studying Middle Eastern affairs at Tel Aviv University in Israel. She lived within walking distance of the most beautiful beach in the world. In this year, the seeds planted for her second novel: Siena Saint James Is Not a Spy.
HOW IT'S GOING
Erica's first novel, Ahead of Her Time: An SAT Vocabulary Novel, was published in 2019. Loosely inspired by her semester in Egypt, it's often described as a book you'd want to read anyway...it just happens to also have vocabulary-boosting benefits! Action, adventure, romance, ancient Egypt...what's not to love?
Vocabbett
Inspired by the success of Ahead of Her Time, Erica founded Vocabbett in 2019 with the goal of producing the best vocabulary-boosting content out there. She even started a podcast with the onset of the pandemic (The Vocabbett Podcast). Though it's on permanent hiatus, the 50+ episodes she recorded are still a fantastic resource.
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Inspired by the semester she spent in Israel (as well as a passion for spy shows and a newfound love of Krav Maga), Siena Saint James Is Not a Spy is the best book you'll ever read. Erica even went back to Israel in 2021 to train with some of the best Krav Maga experts in the world to conduct research! The fact that there is a vocabulary-boosting version of this book is just a bonus. Trust me, get it today.
Vocabbett Annotated Classics
As a former teacher, Erica found herself wanting to "Vocabbett-ify" classic novels, putting definitions and explanations at the bottom of each page. So...She did! These are the best editions of classic novels that money can buy.
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Vocabbett becomes
Renaissance Revival
After six incredible years, Vocabbett needed to expand. While vocabulary-boosting books were a great place to start, our audience was hungry for more brilliant and beautiful products. We chose something easily recognizable and alliterative this time, as the most frequent question we answered before was..."So, how exactly do you pronounce Vocabbett?"